crap Headlight problem...

[HudsonHawk]

4.5 hours to pull the dash, replace the heater core and button it all back up. Not bad.

I was testing everythign to make sure it worked. Turned the headlights on they popped up and immediately went right back down. turned the switch off and back on nothing.... Pressed the HL button on the center of the dash up pops the lights. Turn the HL switch on the lights come on. Turn the HL button off on the center dash and the lights go down but the lamps stay lit.

So obviously something got hosed when I took the dash apart. Tomorrow I get to go through the trouble shooting in the enthusiasts book and see if I can track down this gremlin.

At least its not my DD.

[HudsonHawk]

Go out this morning to trouble shoot the headlights.. try them again for grins and giggles. They are working. Cycle the switch several times with no problems. I com in and tell the wife.

She says, "Oh yeah, I ment to tell you. That has happend a couple times over the last year or so. Sometimes they just would not pop up."

With that information I am guessing its the headlight switch itself going out.

[trickyrix]

I've got a good combo switch left over from my cruise install if you want to try it...

[HudsonHawk]

I have cruise, will that one work for me?

[trickyrix]

The headlight switch will work the same, so you could at least test the theory. You should be able to swap your cruise/wiper stalk to a non-cruise combo switch.

Take a look at this for the stalk swap.

[MadMerv]

The switch in the center console will do that if the connector is loose or disconnected. Since you had the dash out, I'd guess the problem is in that area, not the stalk.

[HudsonHawk]

But the console switch works fine. Its the stalk switch that does not always work.

And judging from the wiring diagram, the eletrical circuits for the 2 switches are completely seperate. Plus according to my wife it has been doing this intermitantly for the last year. She just never mentioned it to me. So it existed before I dismantled the dash.

There are actually 3 seperate ways to raise the headlights according to the wiring diagram. Each feeds a completely separate signal to the Headlight Retraction Unit.

1) HL switch on the stalk.
2) HL retraction button on the console
3) Flash to pass

In my case 2 of the 3 work without a problem. Only the HL switch on the stalk is giving me problems. The caviate to this is that even though the headlights do not pop up they do turn on. So its either a wiring problem from where the wire splits to the headlight retraction unit, or an internal problem with the Headlight Retraction Unit. I have to wait until it acts up again before I can troubleshoot it further.