Never followed up on this... Thank you all for the guidance here! Once I fixed the melted ground all the other electrical issues disappeared. The high / low headlamp switch had basically burned out, so ended up putting the headlamps on their own relay activated by an aux switch to avoid having this all happen again
Electrical Gremlins, help me logic through this.....
- Thread starter DanS HJ-45
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That's how I had my headlights for a few years before finding that burned ground connector - on two separate switches. One ON, the other switch for high beam.
I wired the switches into the center console coin recesses with switches that fit that spot. It SEEMED easy to reach, with my hand just resting in the switch below... but I can tell you, from years of experience having the switches like that, it really is a pain and actually can be dangerous. Here's why...
The problem is having to shift the transmission & switch the headlamps to low beam or high beam at the same time. You wouldn't think that that is very common, but it's really common. Either you end up blinding oncoming traffic (dangerous) because you can't dim the lights fast enough because you're shifting at the time or you're driving in the dark because you can't switch to highbeams fast enough after you dimmed them then shifted.
I don't need to try to convince you, since you've already wired it that way, so you'll soon find out for yourself, but once you replace the headlamp switch with a working unit, (aftermarket switches are available) driving at night will be soooo much easier & safer.
Just a heads up.
I wired the switches into the center console coin recesses with switches that fit that spot. It SEEMED easy to reach, with my hand just resting in the switch below... but I can tell you, from years of experience having the switches like that, it really is a pain and actually can be dangerous. Here's why...
The problem is having to shift the transmission & switch the headlamps to low beam or high beam at the same time. You wouldn't think that that is very common, but it's really common. Either you end up blinding oncoming traffic (dangerous) because you can't dim the lights fast enough because you're shifting at the time or you're driving in the dark because you can't switch to highbeams fast enough after you dimmed them then shifted.
I don't need to try to convince you, since you've already wired it that way, so you'll soon find out for yourself, but once you replace the headlamp switch with a working unit, (aftermarket switches are available) driving at night will be soooo much easier & safer.
Just a heads up.
Totally agree - I'm pretty much only driving with my low beams on at this point, as its a pain to switch over high/low beams. Where should I be looking for an aftermarket headlamp switch?
headlights should have been wired directly thru a fusible link and relay from the factory...mr. t took some shortcuts...