What would cause high beams not to work?

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Thumposaurus
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Thumposaurus »

I have to get my '73 Bus inspected before the end of the month and my high beams don't want to work, when I push up on the turn signal to turn them on nothing happens I'm assuming it's a relay but which one? the bently manual for 1969-1974 that I have doesn't go into specifics about what it looks like it just says it's on the back of the fuse panel on a 1970, but the fuse panel shown looks completely different from mine.
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Bob Ingman
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Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Bob Ingman »

Thumposaurus, This happened on my VW Thing recently.I removed the dash panel to gain access to the back of the switch. From the switch I traced the wires to the relay and then ran a jump wire from the hot wire on the switch to the relay. When I hit the high terminal the voltage seemed to excite the relay and it clicked and kicked the high beams in. Signal to replace relay soon even though this has not reoccured. Might be worth a try. I assume you have a good fuse in the high beam circuit on the fuse panel.
Good Luck and keep us posted. Bob
ray greenwood
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Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by ray greenwood »

Bob has a pretty reliable method here. It is usually, starting around these years, a square relay about 1.5"x1.5"x1.5" silver with a 411 prefix on the part # (yes it is an original type 4 part...and used in almost everything). Sometimes for whatever reason, the little lever that moves from position to position gets hung up in between, and a quick electrical jump, like Bob described, puts it right back in. If it works...then you also know that the relay is probably still good. They rarely go out unless they get wet. If you can't repeat it from the column lever after acouple of manual cycles, you probably have loose or corroded leaf contacts behind the lever under the steering wheel hub. Ray
Thumposaurus
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Thumposaurus »

the fuses are all good, there are two silver squarish things hanging under the fuse panel I'll have to check them tommorrow the first one in the line hangs down lower than the other one, I'll have to check the switch too, but I had replaced it about a year ago so I hope that it's not broken.
Thumposaurus
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Thumposaurus »

Ok, I tried the wire thing no dice, I went to the parts store and had them order a new relay, should be in tommorrow, the little bugger cost $27, but the one Itook out looked pretty old so I'm assuming it's the original one.
Thumposaurus
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Thumposaurus »

I'm still not having any luck with it, the relay has 5 posts on it, but when I look at it from the top only four have wires going to them, should there be a 5th? where does it come from?
Thumposaurus
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2001 12:01 am

What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Thumposaurus »

finally fixed it yesterday, the relay was bad, but when I put the new one in the only way I could get it to work was to splice the ground wire from the switch to the relay with a ground going to the body, once I did that it worked like a charm, I'm going to go over it now and check everything else out for the inspection.
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Bob Ingman
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What would cause high beams not to work?

Post by Bob Ingman »

Congrats Thump you fixed it. Rewarding to fix a persistant problem is`nt it? Good Luck. Bob PS nice to see good again too.
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