coming home at dusk tonight from a car show (got a ten best trophy, too bad i missed the $250 cash drawing). anyway when i got home the headlights weren't working. tried a few things and went to my assem manual. nothing worked and i'm sort of lost in all the old wiring. everything else was working: park lamps, interior dash lights (except the clock lamp quit working, bulbs OK, guess if anyone wants to tackle that under this post see below), etc. anyway i couldn't get anything to make them work. figured I'd try one more time before posting here. i hid the dimmer switch a few times and they came on. at first just on dim and when i hit bright they would go completely out. after trying this a few times they started working correctly on both dim and bright. turned them off and on a few times after this and they still work fine. short in dimmer switch? or do you think it's somewhere else? any suggestions?
part 2 problem - as i said the clock instrument lamp quit working. tried to check the bulb from the back and screwed up something with the idiot lamps. instead of my alt. lamp working correctly, it now lights up with the parking brake light. comes on when you mash the parking brake down and goes off when you release it. and the clock lamp is ok (checked it from the front) so it is something else. rest of gauge lights work. wiring has never been replaced? sounds like with my bull in a china shop electrical service might be better off to let someone else look at it, but does anybody have anything i might try without blowing something else up?


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To see a pic of my car, click here... pages.prodigy.net/mtbmtb/rf396ss.jpg (http://pages.prodigy.net/mtbmtb/rf396ss.jpg)

Mike,
The dimmer switch is bad. Also check where the wires plug into it. The switch has a lot of amps going thru it and the added resistance from the corrosion makes heat that can melt the plug.
David

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The older I get, the faster I was!

UPDATE:
replaced a fuse for the gauges i noticed that had blown and now the alt idiot light seems to be working again (at least it doesn't come on with the parking brake light any more). the headlights have worked every time i tried them, so i guess i'll keep checking and wait until i'm out in the middle of the night on a very dark road for them to completely go out and then cuss myself for not replacing the dimmer switch. the clock lamp (between speedo and tach) still does not work. all the other lamps do. aren't these all on the same circuit sharing the same ground? any suggestions, i hadn't borrowed the tester from pop to see what's up yet.

I've got a motorhome that sits a lot and the dimmer quits on it. I do a bunch of hi to low clicks with the lights on, and it starts working after a while.

I've also seen where a switch gets wet or there is a poor connection at the plug on it and the dimmer switch plug burns, melting it away. there is no fuse other than a fuseable link on this circut so it can get very hot.
At least pull back the mat and take a good look at the plug. Look for signs of moisture (rust) there too.

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The older I get, the faster I was!

will do. thank's for looking after this lazy old fa*t.

I had that same problem a few years back, and it was as David said, some rust and corrosion on the connector. Cleaned it and havn't had a problem since.

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67 Camaro 410sb 11.63 @117.6
67 Camaro 388 ET-???
website (http://www.geocities.com/lonnie67_1966)