Date:         Mon, 6 Sep 1999 18:32:16 -0400
Reply-To:     Caston/Payne <happycampers@PICUSNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Caston/Payne <happycampers@PICUSNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: headlight emergency!
In-Reply-To:  <37D3FA4C.54A47DBB@online.no>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Daniel,
Just went thru this in Vinnie, our 85 Westy. I lost dash lights & high
beams. I replaced: highbeam selector switch on the column, turn signal
stalk and components on the column, ignition switch and dash headlight
switch. Which one was it?
Well the total story is all. Dash lights turned out to be a fuse (but now I
have new parts in the steering column and dash ;-). But MY problem with
high beams was the dimmer switch. My symptom was like yours--had to hold up
the dimmer switch to have high beams.

I will overnight the part (donated from a great guy that helped me) if you
want. It won't be pretty but...it will be functional.  You just take a
couple of nylon ties and secure it to the column and when you need high
beams just activate the switch without the stalk. Harder but brighter. Let
me know. Or you could find one in a u-pull it to get you home instead.

Q:Are you running high wattage bulbs? If you are I can forward contact info
for a headlight harness that will handle just about anything we can
reasonably put in our lenses. You are running H4's aren't you? If not shame
on you. Order them from one of the list vendors and see the light! I'm
getting ready to upgrade Vinnie to 90W lows/130 watt highs with 100watt
driving lights! 460 watts of pure blinding vision! Sorry, I digress.

When you want to buy it new to fix it at home, Bill at Camelback VW in
Arizona (800.876.5199) gives us listers 20% above wholesale prices. The
switch you probably need though, is still $60.00 US. If you order one, get
the right part. It looks as if the part you need is what's attached to the
stalk but in reality the dimmer switch is integrated into the part attached
to the turn signal. You'll know what I mean if you take it apart.
BTW, I didn't need a puller to get the spacer and steering lock /switch
off. I used a hammer and big screwdriver to carefully tap around the beefy
part and it slid right off. Pretty simple.
Later,


At 7:30 PM +0200 9/6/99, Per Lindgren wrote:
>Davidson wrote:
>
>> Daniel,
>> I have seen your problem many times on the list...
>> almost surely it is your head light switch... replace it...
>> No relays in the headlight system.
>
>Daniel,
>If that doesn't help, go for the ignition switch! The two most common failures
>when the lights disappear.
>
>PerL
>87 Syncro 112i