Date:         Tue, 16 Nov 1999 15:21:21 -0800
Reply-To:     Otmar List Account <otlists@EVCL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Otmar List Account <otlists@EVCL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Light switches
Comments: To: daveb@CP.NET
In-Reply-To:  <3831B27B.9EC94DA@cp.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

> >  Has anyone ever had their headlight switch go bad to the point where the
> >  headlights won't go on but the parking lights will?  I'm 99% sure this is
> >  what it is although I haven't verified it with a volt meter yet.  It just
> >  seemed like a strange thing to fail so I wanted to poll the list
>to see if I
> >  am not alone.
>
>        I had this happen. It was soon followed by the switch not
>being stuck in one of the on positions without headlamps. I didn't
>have a spare, but I found that the high/low beam connection in the
>plug base can be bridged by the same blade fuses the vanagon uses.
>I powered the parking lamps from posts taken from the switch and
>connected via clipped test leads...
>
>dave

My switch went bad last week. At first I thought it was the ignition
switch again, I had replaced that a year ago. But then I saw that the
power mirrors were still working so I knew it was not the ignition
switch. I took some #16 stranded wire and wrapped it in a figure 8
around the two larger terminals on the back of the switch (after
trying to fix it by taking it apart and cleaning it which didn't
help) and plugged it back in. That made the headlights stay on
whenever the ignition was on. I still had to turn the switch on to
get the running lights to work. The last straw for my switch was two
hours of washboard dirt roads with the high beams on. I think the
vibration and high current both exacerbated the problem.

Friday I called Kyle at Volks Cafe and he had a new switch for
$34.50. The switch arrived yesterday and now it's all good again. :-)
Happy Vanagoning!

  -Otmar-
82/86 Stretch Vanagon Westfalia Syncro GTI. "Power of two"
http://www.evcl.com/strvan/strvan.html
Several EVs (Electric Vehicles)