I have a 69 with 350, auto, A/C, PS, PB. The insterment lights don't work, and I have reason to belive the problem is the headlight switch. How hard is it to access the switch & replace it? Do I have to deal with vacuum lines? How do I go about accessing the switch? Any other suprises? Thanks for your help.

 

It's not tough at all. It's located directly behind the light switch. I removed the 3 screws at the top of the drivers side dash, 2 screws on the side. Pull the dash back a little. Switch is right there. It has 2 vacuum lines. Make sure you take not of where they connect on the switch. **** pulls off from switch by pushing a button on the switch I believe.

 

i will point out that if you didn't buy a switch yet, one from Autozone costs about $15 vs. the $55+ in Corvette speciality catalogs. I have bought it, but haven't installed it yet.

 

getting to the switch is easy but when i replaced mine i had to literally take the thing apart cuzz the button didn't release the handle... but i did get to see exactly how it worked

 

Does it have the vacuum switch?

 

Wow, Twinray, thanks for the tip!

This is a future project for me, too.

 

Dunno, will check tonight and post tomorrow.

 

To remove the switch ****, you must pull it out as far as it will go, then depress the button on the top or bottom of the switch (can't recall where exactly). To get at the button with your finger, that is where it is a good idea to loosen the driver side dash pad by removing all screws on the inside by the door and the top, and maybe even the screws holding the center consol gauge cluster to the side of the dash pad. If that doesn't get you enough room, loosen the clamp holding the steering colum to the bottom of the dash. I think that helps get the driver dash pad loose. Good luck. Did mine couple years ago on a 70.

 

Well, it won't matter to me but - It does not appear there are any vacumn lines. I guess that could be the price descrepency. I don't know how they can sell these as a replacement if there are vacumn lines on the orig. switch. I will attempt to take the old switch out this weekend.

 

The Autozone $15 switch is not a direct replacement for the Delco switch. I guess the $55 speciality catalog replacements are with provision for the 2 vacumn lines. BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO, which is what I did but I don't know if it is worth your time and effort. Since I already had the AZ switch, I modified both the old switch and the new one to come up with a replacement. I don't have flip ups but toss the idea around every once and a while to put the stock configuration back so in the event I do, my pop open doors will work.

1. Take the metal plate off the old unit - it has provision for the 2 vacumn lines, the AZ one doesn't. You will be using this metal plate and discarding the metal plate on the AZ unit. All you do to remove is flip up the the 2 tabs.
2. You will notice on the Orig. unit, that the square plastic slider has a cutout in it. This is where the tab slider goes in. The controls whether or not the vacumn open or closes the ppop up doors depending on whether the switch is pulled out or pushed in
3. The new unit does not have this cutout in the square plastic. Instead of using the old part with the slit already in it, I used the new one and made a slit in it. There are small springs attached and i figured the ones in the old one were worn. Notice where the slit is cut in the Orig unit and with a hacksaw blade, you can make the cut in the AZ part.
4. The ceramic from the AZ unit is larger than the ceramic from the Delco unit. You must get a very small file (I used the one on a Leatherman) and slightly enlarge the metal cutout on the Delco part so the unit can be assembled. The unit cannot be snapped shut until you enlarge the cutout. Now fit the tab that controls the vacumn slider in the plastic part you have cut a new slit in and reassemble.

All this fabrication should take less than an hour. It took me longer but I didn't know what I was doing when I started out. If your slider on the Delco unit is broken or if your vacumn line fittings are broken, you need the $55 unit. Or, you might not want to bother at all and just buy the proper unit to start with. For me, it was Sunday morning, I had the AZ unit already and I felt like messin' around to see what I could come up with.