headlights or lack of

[Daniel]

Well over the weekend I joined the flakey headlight club.It started with "that smell".Upon inspection I found the hi/low switch was bad.At the rear of the switch where the wires attach it was burnt on the hi side.I found that the plastic housing has four slots in it that accept the fiber type piece that holds the contacts.One of the feet that goes in the slot had broken.This allowed the hi contact to push away.Thus burning.I never use low beams and it never bothers other drivers.That contact was nice and clean.I reinstalled the switch minus the contact board to give the signal arm the correct feel and wired my hi beams straight to the wire that did supply to the switch.Perhaps filling that rear fiber board area with silicone would take some of the stress from the locking feet.I was too late.Another thing I found interesting is the wire that feeds the switch is soldered inside it to the part that seesaws back and forth to make hi or low.That flexing of the wire could also lead to failure but I did get 30+ years from it.