The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay BAD CIRCUIT BREAKER OR ????

Thought someone could use this info before buying a new light switch.

I was having an issue with my lights, dash and headlights. So I pulled the switch and tagged every wire by making a diagram and numbering each terminal on the switch and assigned a numbering system on the switch which would correspond to numbers I would place on a peice of masking tape on the wires so that when I go to hook everything up, everything will work.
Did that and then cleaned up the connections real good on the switch and wires. I put everything back as it was and turned on the lights and still no lights. So, I started using my test light and found that power was present at the back terminals on the switch but nothing after the terminals. On looking closer I see that there is a set of points coming off the circuit breaker and I took a piece of light cardboard the thickness of a book of matches and ran ir across the points...and "voila" I had power where I needed it to be....so keep these points in mind before decideing that the switch is bad...could save you some $

That's a built-in bimetal circuit breaker designed to prevent complete loss of lights in case of an overload or a short circuit. The lights will flash on and off enough to provide a little bit of illumination.

If high current headlights like some of the very bright halogen units are used, their normal current draw might be enough to cause the breaker to cycle. That's where a set of relays need to be incorporated into the circuit to take the load off the light switch.
Jerry