keith.abergel

Zed Head, your explanation combined with Steves diagram cleared it all up. I mistakenly thought that the second on position on the switch assembly was used to switch between high/low beam. Actually, the high/low beams are switched by pushing the turn signal arm outward which switches the high/low beam circuits ground paths. It was this switch that was worn out and stuck in the high beam position even when the turn signal arm was not pushed outward. Rookie mistake Thanks to everyone for the assistance.

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply. The wiring is indeed stock. The circuits for the high and low beams are exactly as you described. I was working off of that same wiring diagram from my FSM. I understand that the dimmer switch changes the ground/return path for the circuit; between the red with white stripe for high, and red with black stripe for low beam. What I cant quite understand is how this is accomplished since the dimmer switch seems to be on the feeder (poor terminology sorry) side of the circuit and only opens and closes the power to the circuit (by connecting the white with red stripe to the solid red)? What am I missing here? Thanks again.

Hello all, I have dug through the old threads but cant seem to find anything that addresses testing the combination (dimmer) switch for the headlights on my '78 280z. I have narrowed down the problem to the switch, I think. Bulbs are good, fuses are good, continuity of circuit from the switch to the bulbs is good, even the ground return path (red with black stripe for low beam return path, red with white stripe for high beam return path). The headlight switch shown in in the picture has a white wire with red stripe that feeds constant power from the positive terminal of the battery (through fusible links first). When the dimmer switch for the headlights is in the high beam position, the switch completes the circuit when allowing the white with red stripe wire to feed power to the solid red wire which then goes on to the fuse box, and then splits into solid red (right headlight) and red with yellow stripe (left headlight). However, when the dimmer switch is in the low beam position, the solid red wire does not receive power since the rocker arm does not connect the white with red stripe wire (hot from battery) to the red wire as it does when in the high beam position. Is this how the switch is supposed to function? I already cleaned it thoroughly, contacts between rocker arm and pins are good. Any help would be greatly appreciated. [ATTACH=CONFIG]72653[/ATTACH]