Headlight switch fire?
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 17,676
Likes: 201
From: Who says "Nothing is impossible" ? I've been doing nothing for years.
Back in 2001 I discovered my switch shaft was pretty hot so posted this same question here. I got this response from Tom Parkinson:
I owned my 79 from 79 to 84 and I think the hot shaft on the light
switch was "normal". Serial number 45802. Went back to check old
records since my recall is sometimes faulty!!
Picked the car up on Aug 13 that year . First service was on Sept 5.
Work order item says " Check H/lamp switch Rod - Gets very hot with
H/lamps on".
There is no record of any switch replacement (and I don't recall that
being done) so they probably told me it was "normal".
So the short version is that my brand new 79 had the problem, I
drove it for 5 years and never had a reason not to believe it was "normal".
I replaced it with improved results but the shaft will still get just barely warm with the instrument lights all the way up. Go figure.
I owned my 79 from 79 to 84 and I think the hot shaft on the light
switch was "normal". Serial number 45802. Went back to check old
records since my recall is sometimes faulty!!
Picked the car up on Aug 13 that year . First service was on Sept 5.
Work order item says " Check H/lamp switch Rod - Gets very hot with
H/lamps on".
There is no record of any switch replacement (and I don't recall that
being done) so they probably told me it was "normal".
So the short version is that my brand new 79 had the problem, I
drove it for 5 years and never had a reason not to believe it was "normal".
I replaced it with improved results but the shaft will still get just barely warm with the instrument lights all the way up. Go figure.
I have never taken one apart but I think the dimmer is just a rheostat and when you turn the instrument lights down the remaining current is just left to be dissipated as heat in the switch, which is fine if the heat dissipation part ( sink ) of the rheostat is up to the task but it is not
