Paging: Slowcrow & Midnight Sun

[Bruce Dorsi]

Frank,  I'm curious to learn what the cause of your high-beam/dashlight/ignition problem turned out to be.

I assume you must have solved it by now, which is good for you, but I'd like to learn from your troubles, also.   Thanks!


Jack:  Were you able to correct your brake problems on the coupe?  ....If so, would you mind sharing, also?   Thanks!

[slocrow]

Bruce; I think it's fixed & I'm sorry for not following up with the assumed result. As you'll remember it never really made sense with both the headlight and dash light circuits shorting in unison along with the engine missing, to the same beat.
It seemed like a loss of ground, for all three to fail at the same time, with the same beat on a fiberglass body. At, I think it was mopar's suggestion, I replaced the floor mounted dimmer switch, though I had my doubts but for $5 I gave it a try.
In the process I redid the headlight looms with #6 fuel line for more ID room, though I used the same wires. I looked for any telltale signs but found none.
Since only doing that work and the dimmer replacement, the problem has never happened again. I'd have to guess it was the dimmer switch but will admit I'm still unsure how.
Now if you have time, there is a twist to this saga for your entertainment.

While on the way to K'Zoo, West on MI 94, with over an hour to go, in the rain with no wipers (only rain-x) and night fast approaching, I noticed that my dash lights had gone out. I was running at dusk with my parking lights on just prior to night fall. I walkie-talkied my buddy following and was informed I also had no tail lights. I did have brake and directional still functioning.
I ran the rest of the way in to K'Zoo with a turn signal on and dragging the pads for brake lights, where necessary. Not the safest move I'd suggest.
Of course you're brain busting while zip'en along and I convinced myself that what had happened was that having a GM type headlight switch, which I was told has it's own built in circuit breaker, it must have gone bad and I needed to replace it at the show. That's the reason I didn't even look for any other cause & solution. I was also now sure that the headlight switch was my real problem all along.
Had the original blinking/missing never happened I probably would have pulled over and checked the trouble, for the next morning as I prepared to investigate the problem, there on the floor, below the fuse box was the headlight breaker. Plugged it back in and no problem since.
I've got to take a better look at that position on the box. That breaker isn't seating itself in the box correctly and that has happened once before.
So that's the story and if the question is what was originally wrong, I'd have to say the dimmer but I'm not really convinced.
Thanks for asking, Frank

[Bruce Dorsi]

Thanks for your response, Frank, but no apology is needed!  .....I'm here to learn, and your kind of problem always arouses my interest.

.....I hope your troubles are behind you!

What perplexed me in your initial post was the tie-in with the engine mis-firing.   .....I was trying to imagine what possible situations in the light circuit could cause the engine to mis-fire, but only when the high-beams were on.  .....My only speculation was that a short in the high-beam circuit could cause enough of a momentary voltage drop in the ignition circuit to cause a hiccup.

If the original dimmer switch were indeed bad, how would that affect the ignition?   .....I was assuming that the dimmer switch was mounted to a fiberglass or wood panel, and was in no way grounded.  .....Since there was no problem running with low beams, any possible short would have to be on the high beam side.

Have you experienced any further mis-fires, or was that a freak, non-related, occurence?  

I've done mechanical work for 50 of my 58 years.  I truly believe you can train a chimp to change parts, but it takes a mechanic to know which parts to change, and why! ....I HATE throwing parts at a problem without knowing where the problem lies.

Thanks, again!

[phat rat]

Frank,  I'm curious to learn what the cause of your high-beam/dashlight/ignition problem turned out to be.

I assume you must have solved it by now, which is good for you, but I'd like to learn from your troubles, also.   Thanks!


Jack:  Were you able to correct your brake problems on the coupe?  ....If so, would you mind sharing, also?   Thanks!

yes I got it fixed. But the hard way, I changed over to 4 whl disc. A drum/ drum master would also fix it.

[midnight sun]

Jack:  Were you able to correct your brake problems on the coupe?  ....If so, would you mind sharing, also?   Thanks!

Sorry I took so long to answer Bruce.  I have been in and out of the hospital with some type of infection of kidneys, prostate, urinary tract.  They still havent pinned it down but I am feeling better.

To answer your question (or not) the brakes are "OK".  I plugged off and bled each line separately and it seemed to help.  Still not what I would call great but frankly I go tired of messing with it.  Since then we have taken a trip to Yellowstone ( everyone shoud do that sometime.  It was a blast) and a couple over to Denver without any problems.  I just have to remember that they arent perfect.  Thanks for asking!