More headlight problems. 12-01-14

When we left Silly Al’s Sunday evening Patti was driving. When she turned the  head lights on they didn’t come on.

They have been a bit temperamental but they have always come on in the past; this time no joy. Fortunately the running lights I installed this summer are working so we had enough light to get home.

In the morning we went to the Times Three restaurant for breakfast with
Jo Ann, Dave, Doris, and Jim. Becky and Dennis stopped by the restaurant; It was good to see them again.

After breakfast I started trying to figure out what was going on with the head lights.
I took the dash apart and spent a long time wiggling wires and checking out connections. Everything seemed to be connected properly but every time I got the lights to work and started putting things back together they would turn off. I would take things apart again and the lights would come on. I would wiggle wires and connections but nothing happened, then I would put the switch back in place; but when I would try putting the dash back together the lights would go off again. Eventually I noticed that one of the dash parts fit closely around the switch paddles and when I would try screwing it in place it would move the switch ever so slightly to one side and the lights would go out again.
Just the slightest pressure on the side of paddles and the lights would go on and off.
Ahaa!
The new switch that I had installed a year ago was faulty.
I still had the old one so I replaced the new one with it.

When I put the dash parts back together the lights stayed on. I wiggled the switch and wires but the lights stayed on.
Unfortunately the old switch had other problems and would turn the clearance lights on with a very slight touch. I decided that that was unsatisfactory so I took the new switch apart and moved some of the springy contacts so that they made a better connection.

 

I reassembled the switch and installed it. This time it was possible to completely put the dash back together with the lights on and they stayed that way. I turned the lights on and off several times and everything seems to work fine.
If the switch gives any more trouble I will try another new one.

The rest of the day was spent just puttering with small stuff.

Cheryl and Dennis stopped by the RV and visited for a while It was nice to see them.

Okay, that was our Monday.