Turn signal makes my headlights turn off?!?!

[BadDog]

Yes that's right... my car wouldn't pass NY safety inspection this morning because my headlights turn off when the turn signal comes on . Has anyone experienced this before? I'm guessing it may be the turn signal/high beam stalk switch because the turn signals don't always work unless it's in the right position... plus the stalk is kind of "mushy" feeling ...

[BadDog]

Hmmm no ideas yet? Well now that I've seen the price of a new switch, I'm gonna get some contact cleaner and some blow-off and see if I can clean it up a little!

[2ManyZs]

I think you are on the right track, the dimmer switch sounds like the culprit. It isn't too hard to get too, and it's a lot easier to take apart to clean than the headlight switch assembly. If it still doesn't work, mperdue is parting out his 73 so if you act fast he may have a switch you can replace it with. He just posted it.

Just be careful, if I remember right there are some small pins and springs in there you will not want to lose. It's been years since I took one off, so I can't remember exactly what is in there.

[BadDog]

Thanks, 2ManyZs... I grabbed some contact cleaner and some blow-off from work and cleaned the turn signal assembly... in doing so, I found a black lead that was loose... I pull it apart, and gee! the headlights turn off! I put it back together, and they magically come back on! wow!

So anyway, my turn signal is much less sticky now, and I made sure that electrical lead is now tight... but I had to get a new signal ticker. My old (original "Niles"?) one was bad. Nobody in town had a part like it, so I'm temporarily running a generic one, which is a lot quieter. As for my other new problem, well, I'll post that elsewhere