Jumped in the car last night (85 300Dt CA), flipped the headlight switch, all interior illumination came on, but no headlights! Both were working on the way to the restaurant. If I flip the stalk to high beams, the high beams work fine. Any suggestions? I did a search; couldnt find anything. This buggy sat for the winter and now it's one spring problem after the other

Thanks.

You know, I've seen this situation on the SD every so often with the age of the combination switch. The switch must be all the way rearward (toward the driver) to activate the low beams. The switch must be all the way forward to activate the high beams.

Now, there should be proper detents in both these positions so that you get either low beam or high beam. But, as the switch gets old, the detents go away. So, gently pull the arm rearward (toward you) while the lights are on and see if you can get the low beams to work. If you can, it's time to replace the combination switch.

I recently did this on the SDL because the contact for the washers was non-functional. It's not too bad a job. The switch is a bit pricey.

The headlights are wired and fused separately (left vs right). But the combination switch (dimmer) is common to both. Do your fog lamps work? (They should not come on when the headlights are selected to "bright.")

Yep, I'd forgotten about that. This now seems to lead directly to the combination switch.

Well, it wouldn't be the first "switch" to start sticking this spring (remember my kickdown switch Brian??

Cool; I'll run the check you describe. Where is the combination switch? In the cluster or under the hood?

It is the lever on the steering column that you use to select normal or bright headlights. Also the wiper/turn signal switch, hence the name "combination switch."

My car's headlights are slow to come on when it is cold. if it is -10 below, it takes about 10 seconds for the headlights to come on.. in the spring time and the summer, they work as normal... I am thinking that it is the main headlight switch, but now that you speak of the combination switch... it no longer holds in the left or right turn signal position, so It will be rewarding to replace that and see if it helps the headlight when it is bloody cold out..
Jason

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46 WDX Power Wagon

84 300TDT daily driver

Boy do I ever................what a nightmare.................

The switch does not "stick". More likely is is sloppy and falls out of the detent position. There is a space between the two detents that is "no man's land".
You don't get either the high beams or the low beams.

Tango,

That's interesting. The yellow fog lights do come on when the highs (or so I thought) are on, so what does that mean? I also noticed a couple other things upon second look: (1) I have to have the blinker arm pushed forward to get lights (high position right?); (2) the lights dont seem all that "high" when on (maybe fog light operation suggests not high); (3) there's some water in the bottom of my headlamp lenses, sloshing around.

I dont get it.

Is there any way to test the operation of the combi switch with a multimeter?