The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Headlight Switch Question

Hello,

In the middle of installing the wire harness in my 1941 Chevy Pick-up Truck.

A little confused with the Headlight Switch. Especially in regards to the Instrument lights. I have 6 terminals on my Headlight Switch. They are;

-Aux
-Batt
-Park
-Head
-Tail
-From the rheostat

Does anyone know or have a drawing of what wires are suppose to do to each terminal?

My harness installation instruction keeps talking about a instrument lamp switch. What is this? Is it part of the Headlight Switch?
-The instructions states one wire goes from the headlight switch to the instrument lamp switch and then one goes from the instrument lamp switch to the instrument lsmp??? A little confused by this???
Any ideas where these wires go?

Also there should be a wire from the Headlight Switch to the Stop Light Switch but there is not a terminal for this on the Headlight Switch. Any insight into where this wire goes on the Headlight Switch.


Any help would be great everyone......please let me know.

THANKS!!

My 46 has a little switch under the center of the dash, goes left and right and turns on a lite bulb center of dash. Not sure if that sw. controls gauge lites as well. Hope this helps.
Jim

Thanks for the reply.
What could help alot is to know exactly what lights are suppose to come on for each of the detents of the Light Switch. Would anyone be able to provide that.

-Full in
-Half way
-Full out
-When the knob get turned

Thanks for the help.....when I go the truck all wiring was removed so I am learning as I go.

in-none
first detent - front park, rear running lights [and dash on later years]
full out - headlight, rear running, [dash]
turning adjusts dash light brightness from off to full, but pre-47 did have that slide switch under the center of the dash which controlled the dash lights off/on

Bill

Who did you buy your harness from? Did they not provide a wiring diagram? The harness I bought from YNZ was Tiny proof. Anyway, I'm for sure NOT an expert but I'd bet the Batt terminal is for the hotwire input from the battery (most likely after going through the ammeter). The Park, Head & Tail should be the outputs to those respective lights. The Aux & "From the rheostat" I don't feel safe advising you about because I don't know. Someone will prolly be along shortly who know much more than me. Good luck.

Edit: Bill jumped in there while I was forming my insightful reply. If he gives you advise that disagrees with mine, I'd listen to his.

I bought my harness from a local Classic Chevy Parts Shop, here in Canada. The instructions that came with it were soooooo basic, its frustrating. The intrustions were basicly for the coil, distrubutor, gen, starter, with the lighting being left out. There was no diagram just 'wire by number' instructions- wire 1 goes here, wire 2 goes here, etc.

I sure appriciate the help! You guys have been great and I am starting to get a good idea about the wiring, though I had no clue about this slide switch under the center of the dash. I don't suppose someone could post a picture of it?


Thanks again!

Sorry to jump in late on this one - did you get it figured out yet?

I have a couple of thoughts on this if it'll help:
I think you could wire the "from the rheostat" terminal, to the instrument light switch that's under the dash. Just leave the under-dash switch on and do the controlling of the dash lights with the rheostat on your new switch.

The stop light switch is "hot" all the time and isn't switched off and on. The original wiring diagram shows a fuse on the light switch that feeds the stop light switch. Does your new light switch have a fuse on it - or - did your wiring harness come with any fuse holders or in-line fuses? If so, check and see if one of them is supposed to wire to your brake light switch.

Hope this helps.

I think I have it pretty much under controlled. Thanks everyone for the input.

The only thing I would really like is a picture of this slide switch as I still have no idea where it sits or what it looks like.

Thanks again!

don't have a pic, but looks kinda like this - you should find the holes on the lower flange of the dash, right about center - will be screw holes on each side of a rectangular slot - it's not visible from a seated position, not on the front face ... vendor replacements I've seen are the modern toggle switches like you might find at a FLAPS

Bill

Bill, thanks for help!
Today, I actually found the location of where the switch goes and I found the switch (just like your pic) in a box of the wiring that was removed.

Also in this maze of wiring and the switch was a bracket that had a bulb on it that looks like it is controlled by the slider switch. I am guessing this bulb is to iluminate the dash (choke, throttle,etc) Does anyone know where this bracket is mounted?

Thanks again for all the help!

if I recall right, there's a hooded slot [a small louver] in the dash front just above the knobs where that light goes - it's like a "map light" or a courtesy light

Bill

Is the bracket installed on the back side of the dash and the light shines thru these louvers onto the knobs?