Headlight dip switch

I’m having a problem with my headlight dip switch. Low beam works just fine, but when I flip the toggle up to high beam, nothing comes on. If I flip it up and down 6 or 8 times, the high beam then comes on and turns on and off with each flip of the switch. It sounds to me like the high beam contact inside the switch (about 5 years old) has corroded slightly and the multiple flips cleans it enough so that it can make contact and complete the circuit. Has anyone tried to disassemble one of these switches? I would think that its inner workings are pretty simple and the switch could be cleaned and reassembled. Yes or no? Worse case scenario would be ordering a new switch for about $18, but I’m cheap.

Mark,

The switches are dead-easy (apologies to Fat Bastard) to take apart and clean. If I recall, there are copper cylinders which will pop out for cleaning.

Don’t be afeared of this simple job.

TameCAT
Mike B

I flipped mine high to low about 50 times works like a champ it did sit for 25 yrs Roger

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Thanks Mike. I’ll have a go at it and report back later. If I screw it up, SNGB is offering free shipping for the rest of the month, so it wouldn’t be a big disaster.

IIR, the biggest opportunity for failure is the plastic fingers holding the toggle pin, so as long as you don’t gorilla the thing, you should be ok. I believe a small flat-blade screwdriver will be all that’s necessary to pry the pin up and out - then the components are easily accessable.

Good luck!

TameCAT
Mike B

It’s probably the switch but electrons can do funny things if there is high resistance elsewhere in the circuit. If you want to assure yourself that its the switch before disassembly get a cheap toggle switch (with enough current carrying ability) see if it works 100%, then you know its the switch.
pauls

Good morning Mark,
I’m going be the dissenting opinion and suggest you bite the bullet and buy a new one form SNG (NAYYY). After having my Hi/lo switch fail at at an inopportune moment the second time. I decided to install a new one.

The first time it failed was on the very first oil leak on a very dark night near Cortez, Colorado. My lights went completely out when switching from high beam to low beam fortunately after flipping it several times I was able to get the low beams to come back on, I kept the lights on low beam till end of the tour. When I got home I took it apart, cleaned the contacts, used dielectric grease etc and then had the same thing happen again about a year later at another inopportune moment. I suspect you’ll have a similar experience if you rebuild it, if your looking for excitement try loosing your lights at speed on a dark road, it will give you a charge :scream:

Another option I have considered is to put a couple of relays in the system which would likely solve the problem of a 40+yo switch carrying a heavy load, probably the best idea but I don’t want to hack into the wiring loom if the new switch will solve the problem for another 40 years.

Cheers,
LLynn

Piece of cake. We had a recent thread about the most difficult jobs on an E Type; this one has to go down as one of the easiest, right up there with filling the gas tank or adding oil. It took about 15 minutes to remove the switch, pry it open, clean the contacts, coat with dielectric grease, reassemble and reinstall. Lynn, you may very well be right that this is a failure-prone item. I started having the problem not too long after I got the car and bought a new switch (the one I just overhauled). It lasted roughly five years before it went kaput. I’m not convinced that buying another new one would make for a longer lasting fix and since the overhaul is so easy, for me, it’s the answer. Thanks to everyone for their input.

Hi Mark,

I suspect that the solution is something like this (NAYYY): http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=104070
If I were re-wiring my car again I think I would consider it, on the other hand I keep waiting for LED headlights to come out that would look right and decrease the load on the wiring with out making alterations to the wiring :wink:
Cheers,
Lynn

It could also be the RELAY near the radiator?

                                                                     Walter

Not this time. My Series 1 doesn’t have a headlight relay. It was dirty contacts inside the switch. After cleaning, it’s working like new. Lynn’s suggestion of adding a relay is a good one.

One final note on the dip switch that I forgot to mention. When I had it apart, I noticed that the metal band that clamps the switch together is stamped with “Made in England” (I thought that everything was now made in China) on one side and “AC Only” on the other. I can’t see what difference it would make if it were put to DC use, but since it came from one of the major usuals and the manufacturer went to the trouble of marking it AC only, I wonder why it’s supplied for obvious DC usage. Is it possible that using it for DC is the reason that these switches may be prone to early failure?

The solution to most electrical problems is RELAYS… (no wires in the original harness were injured during this production).