Originally Posted by HandyAndy
Speaking of repairing your headlight switch, has anyone found a good solution to the instrument light dimmer function in the switch? I've clean some of these dimmers up and they work okay; however, I came across one that doesn't have any continuity in the dimmer. It seems that a lot of these switches get the 'wiggle' treatment that KEVINSKI mentioned to get them to illuminate.

Hey Jon G, can you come up with some new component to retrofit these switches with to solve the dimmer functionality? The dimmer is staked into the switch bracket, but they can be removed with a little filing. A potentiometer comes to mind. How could we modify one to nest in the headlight switch bracket to improve its operation?

BTW, Jon's tutorial is excellent for reconditioning the headlight/parking light functionality. It should be a Tech Tip! thumbs_up

Thanks Andy,
Once upon a time the Tech Tips were going to be updated/etc, but I haven't heard anything about that in a while so I assume it has been shelved. You can scab in a dimmer from another switch or you could repair the one in the faulty dimmer you have. This is a simple wire-wound variable resistor. The key is the imported copies of this switch have different resistance values in some cases and that means they'll work a bit differently. Bottom line you won't get the same range of dim to bright. I've actually been thinking about wire-wound resistors lately. Once upon a time the best 12 to 6 volt adapter was made by a company in California (Columbia Radio). I've been thinking about the possibility of making those again. Same exact principle but no need for variability.

~ Jon
1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end