Headlight high-beams, electrons AWOL Options

[morgan_harwell]

The headlight high beams have never worked on my car. I haven't paid much attention to this short coming until we moved into the Mountains this year.

I've been trouble shooting, and so far I have replaced fuses and the headlight relay because it never 'clicked' when steering column stalk pulled (and because the low-beams quit working last week, too). Low-beams are working again.

Current symptons:
Low-beams work fine.
Pull steering column stalk, new relay clicks and high-beams turn on.
Release steering column stalk, high-beams shut off, no low-beams either.
Pull steering column stalk again, new relay clicks and low-beams turn back on.
Release steering column stalk, low-beams stay on.

Anyone here experienced this before?

[r_towle]

sounds like you may need to pull the headlight switch and clean up the wiring.
not the steering column one, but the main dash switch.
Rich

[904svo]

Try cleaning the connector on fuse #1 and 2, should have a white wire also a white/blue for fog lights. If the low beams work the same power lead is also used when the relay latches for high beams.

[Tom]

I had a similar problem last year. Replaced the relay and the high beams would not work. Before with the old relay, I had intermittent operation. The new relay has an extra electrical connection. Some one on this site told me to jumper two terminals and after doing that all is well. Think it was Sean from San Diego. I can't find that thread and i don't remember the terminal numbers. Maybe someone can remember that info.
Tom

[zambezi]

I had a similar problem last year. Replaced the relay and the high beams would not work. Before with the old relay, I had intermittent operation. The new relay has an extra electrical connection. Some one on this site told me to jumper two terminals and after doing that all is well. Think it was Sean from San Diego. I can't find that thread and i don't remember the terminal numbers. Maybe someone can remember that info.
Tom

I think this is the thread you are referring to :
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...p;#entry1028581
JIM

[morgan_harwell]

Thanks to All for your responses.

>sounds like you may need to pull the headlight switch and clean up the wiring.
not the steering column one, but the main dash switch.

Did that as part of initial trouble-shooting. I cleaned the contacts and checked switch continuity with a light tester. I also tried a spare headlight switch I have. I'm 99% sure the headlight switch is fine. So I moved on to testing the old head light relay.

>Try cleaning the connector on fuse #1 and 2.

Did that as part of initial trouble-shooting plus tested with Ohm Meter & light tester. I also replaced the old fuses (which were not blown). The high-beams turn on if I pull the steering column stalk, then turn off when I release the column stalk. So the fuse panel is not the problem. Power does get to the head light high-beams.

>The new relay has an extra electrical connection. Some one on this site told me to jumper two terminals and after doing that all is well.

Did that as part of installing the new relay. When I got the new relay, I noticed the extra spade lug. I did a search on this web site (or maybe it was the PP site) and found the thread on jumpering the extra lug to relay power to get new relay to work correctly in a 914. Adding the jumper enabled the relay to 'click' from low to high beams and visa-versa when I pull the steering column stalk.

But, the high-beams will not stay on when I release the column stalk. So I'm thinking the bug is in the new headlight relay. It appears the relay selenoid de-energizes when the column stalk is released, thus breaking contact between common power and high-beams.