Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 22:24:08 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Odd headlights - some on some off
In-Reply-To: <CAMafJWE8BNFy1vVoZUTudvSUvX=fP6-c-idmGqJinQ_YXpwZYg@mail.gmail.com>
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at least 3 members said 'ground wires' ..
that ought to get you going on that all right.
the grounding 'star' thing ..there are two ...above the fuse box to the
left are a little hard to access..
( those btw, are push-on spade connectors, and with age and heat they
get loose ..
and as a type of ground connection are not very good actually,
especially after a decade or two )
and the idea of grounding right next to the headlights ..right to the
body ..
might get you on track pretty easily and directly.
here is a grounding wire trick or enhancement.
Get some multi-point star lock washers ...
use eye terminals on the ends of your new ground wires.
Put the pointy washer between the eye terminal and the van's body that
you are grounding to.
I would also treat the area with dielectric grease..
that should get you a very good ground for a long, long time.
it is a general weakness that the headlight current flows through the
light switch.
The upgrade is to install headlight relays so the headlight current
itself does not go through the light switches.
the ignition switch is also a known weak area associated with headlight
operation.
fwiw ..I recently had a 'new one' ....failure to go from high beams back
to low beams only occasionally ..like once every 50 times of switching
from high to low beams. Like 'nobody there' when you ask for low beams.
That was the high/low beam switch ..
which is actually in the part with the wiper stalk on it , but that was
it. First one I've seen one fail that way. This was on an 83 Westy.
scott
www.turbovans.com
On 5/18/2012 8:49 PM, Bill MacLachlan wrote:
> wow. Thanks guys! Wonderfully clear info from them that has done it!
>
> Tomorrow is take a look at it day,I'll keep y'all posted.
>
> BIll M
>
> On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 7:55 PM, Dennis Haynes<d23haynes57@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Start by checking the ground connection. All the headlights share a common
>> ground terminal at the cluster above the fuse box. It is common for
>> corroision and heat to get the better of this. Better yet, at the lights
>> connect another ground point from the body to the brown wire. The shorter
>> path will help the lights even if the original ground point is OK. Next
>> step
>> is the fuses. There are actually 4 fuses for the headlights, high and low
>> beam, each side.
>>
>> Dennis
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
>> Bill MacLachlan
>> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 7:24 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Odd headlights - some on some off
>>
>> Hi all.
>>
>> Anyone dealt with this recently?
>> '89 headlights.
>> left ones work ( hi& lo beam) right ones don't work ( hi& lo beam) when
>> the switch is on.
>> left one don't work ( hi& lo beam) right ones work ( hi& lo beam) when I
>> put on the brights.
>>
>> So all the bulbs work.... but not in the right way...
>> If you've dealt with this recently you might be able to save me some hard
>> thinking with the wiring diagram!
>>
>> thanks all....
>>
>> Bill
>> '89Westy
>>
>>
