jawagner777

Hey all!! Here is a good one. On my 78 all the lights are rather dim. Interior dash lights barely light up the instruments to see them. Headlights need to be on the high beams to see at night too. Is it just that it is old and needs new lights and bulbs?

Indiancreek

First thing I'd check would be ground.

Jeff_Keryk

Bad grounds and/or alternator output.

jawagner777

Grounds all seem to be fine and the alternater is putting out 14 volts on my multimeter. still have to take apart the dash to get at the gauges but I have to change the vacuum lines for HVAC and lube the doors so i'll integrate the lights with the project.

Would it be worth changing to LED's (Brighter and less current) ? as well as new halogen style headlights?

LB66383

Check the voltage at the headlight plugs and see how much voltage drop there is between them and the battery. Sounds like there's a high-resistance someplace, maybe in the headlight switch or somewhere before the switch.

drwet

I had to replace the printed circuit board behind the gauge cluster in my '79 for other reasons and I was very surprised to find my gauge lights were much brighter after. I have to assume the problem was poor connections with the old circuit board. The lights still aren't as bright as some modern cars, but a huge improvement. I suspect the same problem exists with other lights on these 30 year old cars.

gpierce

What do they look like when the gauges are off? That will tell you if you need polarising film or not.

7T1vette

When the grounds are not connected there are NO LIGHTS WORKING.

Short primer on auto electrical: For current to flow thru anything, it must come from a positive source, pass through the device to be powered, and go back to the battery thru a ground wire. (We can speak of the direction of electron flow in another thread.)

Now that wasn't hard, was it????
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If all of the lights are dimmed by nearly the same amount, bad grounds are likely. You can test this by replacing the most readily available bulb with a new one of the same type. If it is much brighter, you have ALL old bulbs. Incandescent bulbs get weaker with age....just like us.

derekderek

when grounds not connected, the power will find a way thru something else backwards to ground. thus the dim lights. more common with 2 filament turn signal bulbs. then, when the new ground path gets turned on the bulbs will go out.

HeadsU.P.

You guys got taken-in on a 6 yr old thread. Don't ya just hate that? Done that myself and had to go back and delete.
Car is likely long gone by now.
Always check the dates before responding.

7T1vette

New guy posted new post in an old thread. No one was "taken in". But, if getting a belly-laugh out of that is your idea of fun/joy, have at it.

P.S. I've asked site moderators to consider displaying a notice-flag when one is responding to a thread more than one-year old. They (and the site owners) have seen fit to do nothing about it.....so I am just 'doing my thing'. I'm not going to put effort into verifying dates on anything other than the most recent post.

gpierce

OK, this is really strange, The only reason I replied to this thread is because I thought it appeared somewhere on the first page of this part of the forum, as when I look here I only go maybe 2 pages deep. I didn't even look at the date at all. Maybe it was a "related thread" though at the bottom of another one. I kinda hate how this forum software continues a sort of related thread right after the one you're reading with little separation.

cooper9811

IN the user options, you can turn off related threads and set a cut off for displaying old threads.

7T1vette

Cooper:

Interesting! Wonder why the moderators didn't mention that to me.....

cooper9811

No idea - I got aggravated with the "related thread" function and found the other options myself.

riverracer au

where exactly?

i have scoured the "user cp" and cannot find any such option for the "related thread".

it's so annoying that the forum scrolls endlessly from from 1 page to the next now, very easy to be reading 1 topic and "bamm", your reading another.

gpierce

I've fixed it for me. It's in the CP under Settings and Options>Edit Settings>Thread Display Options. The last box is enable or disable related threads.