No headlights

[Anvil]

Hello again. I've spent the last couple of hours searching this site for help to remedy my problem. If I overlooked a thread, please let me know.
I have a 74 FJ40, and have never had a lighting issue. Last night I turned the headlights off, after a few few minutes, I turned them on, and nothing. The headlights would not turn on. The fuses look good, I cleaned the headlight connectors, and am now looking for the ground (I still haven't found it). How should I proceed from here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You!

 

[Assassin]

i had the same thing happen on my 1974 this past summer on the river. I looked at the fuses and they looked fine, but when i removed all of them one by one, i found a blown fuse, i would re-check them.

 

[IDave]

Yep. Replace your good looking headlight fuse with a new one. If that doesn't work, then you need to start working your way through the harness and switches.

 

[RDD40]

If you've got a multimeter or test light it can be pretty easy to diagnose (just went through this myself). I'd start with checking to see if you have voltage on either of the non-White-Black wires coming into the headlight cable. If you do, it's a bad ground. That White-Black wire leads back up to the voltage regulator on the driver's side firewall and is ultimately screwed to the firewall.

If you have no voltage (remember to turn the headlights on at the switch!), check the fuse. A good few folks have been screwed over by corroded connections on the fuse blocks. Pull the fuse (mine's the bottom-most on my 73) and check to see if the fuse and fuse holders are corroded. If they are, clean it all up with some sandpaper or emery cloth. Make it nice and shiny and you're good to go. Do the rest of them while you are there. You can also check the spade connections coming in to the back of the fuse holder for corrosion. I'm pretty sure it's a 10mm to pull the fuse block off. You need to have the engine side of the fuse holders to have voltage, and it should be hot all the time. Easy to test with a test light.

If you are getting current (multimeter or test light) to the engine side of the fuse holders, it's probably the connection to the headlight switch or the switch itself. You can get it out pretty easily just reaching up behind the dash. You can check to see if you are getting voltage on any of the wires coming to the switch (I think it's one of the Green-Whites, but I'm hazy). You should have power on one of them. If so, it's probably the switch, which you can tear apart and clean by prying open the little metal tabs. Use some contact cleaner and again, just make the contacts clean and shiny with some contact paper.

That's the order I'd do it in, from easiest to hardest (for me).

Good luck!

 

[Anvil]

Thanks guys! I truly appreciate your help. I'll bring home a test light and some new fuses and get started...

 

[Devilmans Hand]

You may as well bypass the original wiring and put your headlights off of relays using your switch to activate the relays. Pretty easy to do.

 

[Kentster]

Devilman, I'm digging through some theads on headlights. You mention bypassing the original wiring and using relays, could you elaborate? My headlights don't work on my 76FJ40 and I've tried about everything and instructions or pictures would be apprecaited.

 

[Coolerman]

If your fuse is good and the fuse clips are clean then check the headlight switch connector and the dimmer switch connections.

Power flow is from the fuse block, to the headlight switch, to the dimmer switch them out to the lights.

 

[Kentster]

I have power all the way out to the column mounted dimmer switch. I will try to track it from there.

 

[Kentster]

Coolerman, you rock! I have been messing with this issue on and off for quite sometime. I followed the red/green and red/yellow out of the dimmer, testing them along the way and under the dash the previous owner had tapped into them for fog lights or something and left the wires hanging. I reconnected them and voila! lights both high and low beam. I just needed that little push and I appreciate it.