My headlight switch dimming function never worked, so I ordered a repro headlight switch. You can see my old one had a burned rheostat.

Old rheostat, you can see a few coils are burned through rendering the rheostat nonfunctional.


Just received my headlight switch replacement from TopFlight, and have been inspecting its quality since others have had issues with repros made overseas. It had an extra pin (not sure what that's about), ceramic part is significantly larger for some reason, however more concerning difference is the tolerances of the metal piece which contacts housing when **** is turned fully CCW. In my old switch, the metal finger made perfect contact with the housing, in the new switch, most of it is floating because the finger is too close to the bend in the housing. This will make the current go through a smaller area and in my thinking lead to premature failure. Has anyone seen this on their repros?


Old switch. Gap between finger and housing enables flat contact of finger to horizontal housing surface

New switch. No gap to housing round, causing much of finger to be floating and minimal contact area to finger.

Old switch on left, new switch on right. More ceramic on new switch, and extra pin.

 

Still running the original factory switch on my 77. However, is it possible to remove the coil part from the repro and solder it into the original switch?

 

I ran into this same issue with my 68. I went through the pia process of opening up the driver side of the dash. Replaced the switch . My headlight only work on low beam. I pulled the new switch and noticed the extra terminal on the new switch from Topflight. I called to inform them. They really did not care to hear about it. Blamed their manufacturer in China. They did credit me back but offer no resolution. I contacted Mid-America Corvette as suggest by a member of the 68 owners group on FB. At my request, the customer service person called down to the warehouse and ask to pull a switch to verify the terminal count. It was a match to my original and when installed worked as expected. They do use a different country of origin for that product and it was correct. Thats my story. I now pretty much only use Zip, Mid-America, Paragon and Willcox.

 

The #7 terminal on that new switch is for pre-1968 cars front parking lights.
Terminals #3 & #5 are Bus together but terminal #5 is the parking light circuit 68 and up.
Look at your headlight switch connector main harness, this connector is from a late 1977.
Notice the #7 terminal cell is blocked, so no-way that new switch would even plug into my harness...
If your harness connector #7 cell is open and unused then your new switch should still work.

 

Roamin'
I got my switch for my 69' about 5 years ago from Willcox. They say they test them before sending out. It looked exactly like the original and works perfectly.

Maybe give them a try?

VS

 

I'd try to repair that. A little blob of solder on the coil will close the circuit, smooth it out if you want to, so the contact moves over it nicely, and it ought to work.

 

Agree this is repairable with solder.
Burnout caused by high resistance connection. Too much corrosion between the contacts causes a poor connection, resistance and heat. If used regularly friction will keep the connection clean enough. But most of us set it where we like it and leave it there. By the looks of the other metal parts on the switch, there has been a moisture exposure problem. It will have affected other electrical connections as well. Keep that in mind if you trouble shoot anything else. Good to do the while-you’re-at-it thing and service any accessible connections by working them in and out a couple of times. I use silicone grease(much to the consternation of some other CF members) on static connections(not the rheostat or things like window switches) ;keeps moisture out by extending the wire insulation all the way to the metal-to metal connection.

 

The switch in my 66 went bad. I purchased a repo and ran into the same problem you did. I purchased a NOS switch for about $70 at a swap meet. I wonder how much extra it would cost to make the switch correctly the first time??? Jerry

 

Add to that what would it cost to make
1- backing plates correct as far as the anchor hole lining up
2- Clean fit parking brake parts
3- rebuilt diff axles that fit and are made to GM spec
4- New diff axles that are made to spec
And I'm sure there are plenty more to add to the list and this is not new, we're looking about 20 years of bad fitting parts or more

 

I discovered the finger isn't contact housing well due to 2 reasons:
1) the bend at the tip has larger radius than original switch, this makes finger longer
2) the finger is misassembled, at is tilted clockwise, make end of finger at an angle to the metal housing surface

Look at how tilted the finger is assembled. It should be parallel to housing

Look at tip of finger, it is severly slanted. Original part is perfectly parallel to housing so that it makes good contact when depressed

 

Sorry no pics but i had the same problem.
I took apart two old ones and made a good one...lol
new china stuff is junk (has been for 10 years)

 

One more thing I'll add: I called Topflight, Willcox, and Lectric Limited. Topflight said if I don't want extra pin I could buy the headlight switch for 74-77 (Part #2184), instead of the 68-73 (Part #2187). They should be interchangeable (I verified that my connector on wiring harness can accommodate the extra pin), however Lectric Limited said that the resistance of the rheostat is different between the years due to number of bulbs different. When I called Willcox, they said that they only sell the 7 pin version, however, on their website, their Part # is 2187 (same as the 8-pin P/N from TopFlight). In fact, Willcox said they buy their headlight switch from TopFlight... that makes me think I won't have any better luck from Willcox. On Lectric Limited's website, it says the switch is mfg in Taiwan. TopFlight said their 68-73 is also from Taiwan.

At this point, I think I'll stick with my repro switch, try to fix the grounding contact and make it more parallel. And just ensure to test it before installing. Since it's just a ground, it might not be a huge deal.
One interesting thing I learned is, if you don't have original lights (headlights or instrument bulbs) and instead have brighter ones, it's possible that is what's leading to the overheating issues some of the people have been experiencing with their switches. Just something to consider.

 

Good luck finding any decent parts for your car with China making them. Willcox was testing all their electrical stuff prior to selling it. They still maybe. I use them and Lectric Limited exclusively. Just wait til you try to find a good wiper switch that will last more than 15 minutes. I bought a used one from George here on the forum that recycles vettes, it lasted 5 years. Thats pretty good for a used 50 plus year old switch. THen last year I found a real NOS one in a box. THat one is in the car now, best switch ever because its a real one, not chiinese commie ****

 

 

Oh and I had a brand new commie switch from Corvette America...irony...., that had a vacuum leak right out of the box, great piece of **** for the high price too

 

About 18 years ago I bought a heater/aircon switch, (that goes in the center console) For my 77 from Ecklers. It was that horrible even the cable that came with it was unusable.
I was however able to get parts out of it to repair the original and some custom work to get the original cable to work.
And this was that long ago. So many of these reproduction parts are just garbage!

 

I wouldn't make too much of it...
That "Finger" is the ground path for the Courtesy light circuit.
When the **** is fully rotated you should have continuity between the switch metal casing and single terminal where the White Wire lands, that's it soul purpose.
What is just as important before replacing the switch, clean the ground strap area where the switch casing and strap sandwich together with some scotch-brite to insure a good path to ground.

 

china, hard not to buy from, but I try

 

I bought a reproduction headlight switch for my 1968 C3 and it was made in China but the part fits well and everything worked properly during testing. I later found my old switch worked a whole lot better after cleaning the rheostat and other contact surfaces with DeOxIt contact cleaner. The rheostat worked fine after the cleaning so I continue to use the original switch.

I am kind of doubtful about being able to solder the wires back together on the old rheostat with plain electrical solder. Regular solder has such a low melting point that I don't think it would last very long. Silver solder or another harder solder might be able to do it but that would be difficult to do as you will need more heat for the harder solders. A good electrical repair shop might be able to replace the rheostat coil for you if they have the parts or can reproduce them. I doubt this rheostat was only used on Corvettes knowing GM. There are so many parts that cross over to other models of GM cars.

If you are still using a factory original or a "Quality" replacement you might try the DeOxIt electrical contact cleaner and restorer. This stuff removes decades worth of corrosion in seconds. I cleaned one of the four light socket contacts on the rear of my Corvette and the light looked like it was a brake light as the bulb was so much brighter. It is not the cheapest electrical contact cleaner but it is the best in my humble opinion of course. You can buy it on Amazon and get it quickly.

I wish you the very best in getting your headlights working again!

Best regards,
Chris

I try to avoid anything Chinese as they are not our friend so why support them financially? We need to start making things in the United States or at least in a "Friendly" country. The Asian countries don't seem to be our buddies anymore as China flexes it muscles.
Even New Zealand broke out of a treaty with the U.S. in an effort to keep the Chinese happy, now we will know who is Really our "friends and allies" in the western Pacific.

 

Thanks everyone. I agree the repair with solder will be last resort, I think I'd trying putting the rheostat from new one into the old one first instead of soldering the old one.