The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Need new headlight switch

I replaced my headlight switch a year or so ago in my '59 apache and it has already went bad. Does anyone know where to get a good one? I have noticed that a lot of reproduction parts are not very good.
Thanks a lot,
Gene

I've had good luck with Danchuks switch, my local NAPA carried it

Bill

What's bad about it? At least take it apart and play with it. Continuity test it to be sure it's not the lights themselves. Should last way longer than that. That's why I'm suspicious.

check the wires out on the fenders... I had the same problem on my 46 1/2ton and what happened was the screw came loose on the junction on the fender where the lights all hook up

Thanks for the replies. After doing some reading, I think my problem isn't the switch afterall. The lights are not as bright as they should be and seem to come on bright and gradually dim a little when the brights are on. If I leave them on bright they will start blinking. When I go back to dim they work alright. I have installed a new wiring harness but are the same as before. I am still using the old wires that connect the harness to the headlights themselves. Maybe those wires or connectors are bad? I am thinking of getting a heavy duty headlight wiring harness with relays so that the voltage to power the headlights does not flow through the switch. I will replace the wires that run from the fender well to the lights themselves too. What do y'all think?
Thanks a lot,
Gene

might have poor grounds on the lights, causing higher current draw, which in turn causes the overload thermal contacts on the switch to open ... could also be that those contacts are a bit loose so they heat up too fast, make sure they're closed tight when cold and the 'buttons' are contacting well and clean ... a Bosch relay setup shouldn't be necessary, try renewing the wires to the bucket first

Bill

I would put on the relays. You will get brighter light & take the load off the switches & the rest of the wires.

I had the same thing happen with my 59. Had a new headlight switch from one of the vendors,( don't remember which one ). After a little use the headlights started blinking off and on. Installed a relay and haven't had a problem since. Been 5 yrs.

I appreciate all the advise. I put new wire to the buckets this morning. The old connections were corroded so I thought that I had found the trouble. While I was adjusting the aim,damned if the lights didn't go to blinking on and off again. I ordered a headlight harness with relays today. It is getting to cold to ride my motorcycle after dark so I really need to get this problem worked out!
Thanks a lot,
Gene

The headlight switch (at least the ones I have) have a bi-metallic circuit breaker mechanism. If I remember correctly it is externally accessible. You could try jumping it to see if that is the problem. My limited experience is that the reproductions are a little "testy" with the contacts of the circuit breaker strips. I cleaned and re-arched mine and haven't had a problem since. However, the truck is fused, so I don't depend on the headlight switch for overload protection in that circuit.
don

I finally got my harness with relays installed and the lights are brighter than ever. So far the problem seems to be fixed. The harness was supposed to plug right in to the original but when I got it I realized that English was the 3rd set of instructions. The instructions were crap. The connector that went to my main wiring harness was not right and all 4 lights were on all the time with the harness hooked up the only way it would hook up. I finally made my own schematic and modified the harness. It works perfect now but next time I will just make my own and save my money.

Gene - What relay system did you use?
I am working on two trucks (55 and 58) that have blinking/flashing high beams. Have already went down the path of re-grounding the head light buckets, both trucks have new wiring harness (M&H) and relatively new switches and floor switches.
Both have halogen head lamps.
Had to get the alternator - charging systems setup for 3 wire and have good voltage going to the battery, amp meter in dash shows charging now. Both had one wire systems that did not charge; installed new alternators on each one.
Amps out the back of the alternator 17.5 on low beam, 26.4 on high beam. (relative measurements on both trucks)
Plan on checking the current draw on the lamps and checking out the headlamp switches today.
Thinking that I need relay systems and/or new switches since I am unsure where at least one the truck's headlight switches came from....