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My headlight switch does not light up at night when I turn the lights on. I looked at the FSM and car and can see how to remove the switch assemble, not a problem.
What I want to know before I get in there is there a replaceable bulb that comes out. What kind of lamp is it, where to get it or a part number for it.
What am I in for.
I ended up pulling out the switch but did not have to disconnect any of the connectors to see what I wanted to. Couple bulbs on top and just come right out. I swapped the bad bulb with the ASR bulb. So now the headlight switch lights but no ASR indication (no problem).
The one bump in the road I did have was I could not get a socket on the 2- 7mm screws. And was not sure why as I had all the half sizes and nothing would work initially. The problem is the wall of the socket is to thick and cannot get deep enough to grab the screws. So I took one of my 7mm sockets (have 5 or 6) and ground down the end and part of the main body so I could have a thin wall socket. It worked great, socked still good just don’t crank on this one.
I still need a bulb. This is what it looks like. (New pictures, photobucket deleted)
BULB
GM bulb is # 10159561 and it was discontinued not that long ago. I would think I could come up with an equivalent. I'll try. I don't recall ever seeing a trade number for it but having the bulb in had I would think you'll have no issues.
I thought I had a HL switch and I don't but you've got the bulb so you want to go here and use the dimensions to ID the bulb base and go from there. The link only takes you to a typical wedge base bulb similar to what you believe will work:
The dimensions for the 37 bulb is easily found just by searching using 37 and follow the choices. Once you get the hang of ID'ing the bulb base DONS is quite easy to use.
You can modify the voltage requirements among other things after you ID the base correctly. I haven't used DONS BULBS identifications for many years but I've done it in the past. I had an industry wide bulb interchange that also included dash, switch and component bulbs for GM, MOPAR and FOMOCO and I can't seem to locate that. I believe it's on an old thumb drive and neither of my computer hard-drives.
The bulbs I bought look the same. The advertised measurements are correct. However there are more measurements to be made as I found out. I had a hard time getting the bulb into the socket because even with a caliper the differences are hard to see and measure.
I got the bulb in but then I could not get the socket into the housing. So I switched out the lamp with the ASR light. Put the ASR bulb in the headlight switch, then installed the new bulb in the ASR position (a bit tight). All is in and working but the ASR light seems a little too bright. At this time my thinking is that the yellow colored sleeve is stretched a little too tight and hence makes it stretch more and get thinner letting to much light thru.
The manufacturing of today may not be exactly as it was done 20 years ago. I am still playing around with this but not sure if I can get things any better. Maybe GM made their own bulbs.
The bulbs I bought look the same. The advertised measurements are correct. However there are more measurements to be made as I found out. I had a hard time getting the bulb into the socket because even with a caliper the differences are hard to see and measure.
I got the bulb in but then I could not get the socket into the housing. So I switched out the lamp with the ASR light. Put the ASR bulb in the headlight switch, then installed the new bulb in the ASR position (a bit tight). All is in and working but the ASR light seems a little too bright. At this time my thinking is that the yellow colored sleeve is stretched a little too tight and hence makes it stretch more and get thinner letting to much light thru.
The manufacturing of today may not be exactly as it was done 20 years ago. I am still playing around with this but not sure if I can get things any better. Maybe GM made their own bulbs.
Thanks a million. Another trial and tribulation of having an older car. John
Headlight Switch not Illuminated on 94
