High Beams don't come on

[BrianB]

Gents,

I am having a problem with my brights.

My headlights work perfectly, but when I turn on the high beams, the brights don't come on and the low beams go off. If I pull the lever to flash the brights, the high beams work.

Any ideas about what would cause this? I'm thinking it might be a bad switch, but it has me baffled.

Thanks,
Brian
79 Spider

[bradartigue]

Gents,

I am having a problem with my brights.

My headlights work perfectly, but when I turn on the high beams, the brights don't come on and the low beams go off. If I pull the lever to flash the brights, the high beams work.

Any ideas about what would cause this? I'm thinking it might be a bad switch, but it has me baffled.

Thanks,
Brian
79 Spider

Check your voltages at the headlight connection. High and Low are different elements in the bulb and there is a connector for each.

I would suspect the tang inside your column switch has been tanged too many times. This is the thing that makes contact when you pull down to turn on the brights. When you pull back to blip that's a different connection (although they connect to the same thing in the end). When you turn on your brights does the blue light on the speedometer come on?

[spider2081]

Checking the wire diagram for an 81 Spider shows the most probable cause to be the high low switch itself. The switch has 2 sides. One side of the hi/lo beam switch switches the output of the headlight/parking light switch to the fuses for the high or low beams. The other side of the hi/lo beam switch is fed directly from the ignition switch "hot in start and run" position. This is so the high beams can be flashed even if your headlights are off. The fact that your high beams "flash" means the fuses, grounds and lights are good and working. The difference is which side of the high /lo beam switch that is being used.
The connector at the steering column has a green wire feeding the high /lo switch. The same connector has a gray/red wire for lo beams and a dark blue wire for high beams. If you have a troubleshooting light you could check these wires to confirm the problem

Hope this helps

[BrianB]

The blue light on the dash does come on when I turn on the lights.

I'll check the voltage at the bulbs and the connector to see what is going on voltage wise. I figured it was probably the switch, but I wasn't sure how everything worked in there.

Thanks again for all the help. I'll keep you posted on my progress (or lack thereof!)

Brian

[spider2081]

Hi By my wire diagram you should not be able to have the blue light lit on the dash, no high beam lights lit yet have them flash when you switch to flash.
Could some one have changed the stock wiring, maybe installed a headlight relay kit improperly?

[BrianB]

Sheesh...I don't know. I'll have to check to see what the PO did. UGH!