fantasygoat

I'm the new owner of a '75 4-speed coupe with a laundry list of problems. I was hoping to get some insight as I have zero experience with GM cars of this vintage.

- The high beams won't turn off. If I hold the switch down, they'll stay in low beam, but if I let off they just switch back on.

- When the high beams are on, the turn signal lamps in the dash don't work - the left indicator just stays on and the right never flashes, but the turn signals themselves work on the outside.

- When in low beam, the high beam indicator comes on, and when I turn on the left turn signal, the high beam indicator flashes with the turn signal.

- The headlights pop up when the car is turned on, regardless of whether they're on or not. Using the manual override makes no difference. One side is easy to push down when the car is off, while the other is very difficult. They are impossible to push down when the car is running.

- The headlight switch makes an extremely loud vacuum noise when turned on.

There's a ton of other problems, but those ones have me pretty confused.

Big Block Dave

Good grief Charlie Brown.

Ok, the one thing that I can take a stab at is the headlights staying up. The vacuum noise you are hearing...is it inside the car, like behind the dash? There are two vacuum hoses that run to the headlight switch. If you are hearing the noise in the dash, either one hose fell off, or they were installed on opposite fittings. If the noise is under the hood, its going to be related to the vacuum actuators up in front of the radiator.

The high beam issue sounds like the floor switch is bad and probably needs to be replaced.

The headlight switch, and other assorted problems will have to be accessed and tested by removing the drivers side dash. The interior of these cars is kind of like a puzzle...for best access I would remove the windshield surround pieces, dash pad, lower the steering column, and then remove the driver dash panel.

Quite often on this website I see a blanket response of "get the AIM" to just about every and any issue. Its the Assembly Instruction Manual, and in this particular case will be a valuable tool, but you will have to also use your brain to figure out what a previous owner f#cked up.

fantasygoat

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, the vacuum noise is inside the car, and only happens when I turn on the lights - it's silent otherwise.

imariver

Don't get discouraged . . . . Remember, eventually all problems get solved. Take your time, pick away, little by little, your car gets better.

When I bought my car, it could just barely move under it's own steam, pretty much a total wreck. Now, it's my DD and my wife and I drive it all over the state.