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I feel bad for asking all these questions but here’s another round. I bought my 66 last year and the seller said I’d probably have to replace the headlight motors. He said they both quit at the same time so I figured I may get lucky. A friend of mine dropped the switch and basically blew on it, put it back and they worked. I tried them the next day and back to nothing. I hate to drop $100 on a switch then have to splice it in. He mentioned trying electrical grease on it. Does anyone have any recommendations?
My switch failed two weeks ago. I removed it, carefully disassembled it, cleaned it, reassembled it and the headlight buckets rolled in unison and have worked each time this last two weeks. It was somewhat dirty. I'm not aware of any requirement to grease the switch. You don't need to splice anything, it plugs together on the top side of the switch. Dennis
Last edited by Bluestripe67; Aug 4, 2020 at 08:40 PM.
Don't be afraid to use a Scotch Brite pad or even fine sand paper on the contacts to brighten them up. Then a little NO-OX worked on lubricating mine. Don't forget to check the barrel connectors in the receptacle plug. I had to tighten mine up to get a tight fit on the pins.
Thanks for all the advice everyone! I’m going to give these a try.
I don't know how original you want to keep your car, personally I use relays on my headlights and headlight motors to keep the load off of the switches and you will get very close to full voltage to the headlights and motors.
I had erratic operation of my motors a while back, one faster than the other and the R/H sometimes wouldn't close of open all the way unless I toggled the switch. I removed the switch and using an OHM meter measured the resistance. Had a couple of OHM's more than I thought it should have. Anyways, I cleaned the switch contacts, put some electrical grease on them and measured the resistance again before installing. Got less then a 1/2 OHM. The buckets worked much better although still slower than I would like. I know one day I'll have to yank them and rebuild the motors.
I removed the switch. I don’t want to break something but it seems like the inside should pop out? I was going to use a pick in the home on the top right. Is that correct or do you just clean and lubricate these three pins? Thanks in advance.
The clips on the ends not only hold the switch to the connector, they also hold the gut in. Do you see the little tang on each clip? That has to be released carefully with a small tip straight screw driver. That opens it up and then you can clean the guts with a alcohol based cleaner. Also, the copper clips can be sanded with steel wool or something soft. Steel wool the posts, check the female connection also. Some have said to use dielectric grease on the posts. I did not. Carefully reassemble, all should work like new. Dennis
The clips on the ends not only hold the switch to the connector, they also hold the gut in. Do you see the little tang on each clip? That has to be released carefully with a small tip straight screw driver. That opens it up and then you can clean the guts with a alcohol based cleaner. Also, the copper clips can be sanded with steel wool or something soft. Steel wool the posts, check the female connection also. Some have said to use dielectric grease on the posts. I did not. Carefully reassemble, all should work like new. Dennis
Wish I had been smart enough to ask about those clips before I did mine. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was doing. I do remember now that I had to take a point file to the contacts to remove some arc burrs before I used an emery board to dress them.
I’m probably an idiot on this but I popped the first one no probablem. The second one seems ground into the housing. I’m trying to push the clip down, use the screwdriver to release it and pull the guts out at once without success. Did anyone come up with any tricks for this? See how I’ve already worn the finish off.
It seems like all my projects like this go a similar way. Ha. Just when I think I have it....not so fast. So I put the switch back in and tried it yesterday. Nothing...this morning a took a quick ride and tog
gled the switch back and forth. Wallah. I see buckets up. I get out of the car and look and they're only half way open, lights shining down. I got back in rocked the switch to open....nothing. I toggled to close and buckets close. Tried to open again and nothing. I can't imagine it's the motors with this erratic movement with both buckets. Any thoughts? I noticed these 2 wires that look like grounds near a capacitor to the right of the switch. Could these play a part?
Did you check it with an ohm meter before you reinstalled it? Also, don't forget to tighten up the barrel connector in the receptacle plug. Mine were loose and gave intermittent action after I refurbished the switch.
Did you check it with an ohm meter before you reinstalled it? Also, don't forget to tighten up the barrel connector in the receptacle plug. Mine were loose and gave intermittent action after I refurbished the switch.
Ah. I did neither. What do you test on the ohm meter? I’ll have to check on the barrel connector. I just used the 2 clips that hold the switch together to clip it to the harness. I’ll check that. Thanks.
Headlight Switch
Dennis
