Itinerant Air-Cooled

It took about two seconds with a helper. Sometimes you just need another set of eyes.

Last on the list is redoing the butt-splices and my soldering iron crapped out last night, so hopefully tonight I can finish up. The splice on the black/yellow headlight feed from 'X' was definitely the main source of heat, although the splice seemed reasonably good when I dissected it. Just holding the wires together with an alligator clip raised the voltage and there was no heat present after a good five minutes. I just have to make the new connection permanent.

With a good solder joint replacing the butt-splice, the heat is gone. With all the connections cleaned up I now have 11.5 volts to the lights when the engine is off, and 12.5 when it's running slightly above idle. I feel happy with that.

While I was going through everything I noticed the horn was still flaky, even though I had previously cleaned up those terminals (as described here). Jumping the 85 terminal to ground (simulating horn-ring press) still occasionally resulted in weak clicking of the relay and no audible horn output other than a "ngh" sound. I took the relay apart and cleaned up the contacts and then jumping 85 to ground gave a solid horn blast every time.

Horn-ring action was still flaky. Checking continuity between the brown wire coming out of the column and chassis ground while operating the horn ring showed an inconsistent connection. I popped the horn button and everything looked good, but I could only sometimes show continuity between the brown wire in the trunk and the black wire under the horn button. Ground strap around the steering coupler looked good. I ended up noticing that the gap between the steering wheel and the column housing was a bit larger than what I would expect and peering in the gap I could see that the slip ring contacts were only perilously touching the disc, which fit the symptoms. I shifted the column to close the gap up a bit and then everything worked as it should.

It was a very rewarding experience to go through and verify all the connections and bring a few conveniences back to life along the way. Sure, you don't need to have a little blue light tell you the high beams are on, but it's nice. It's also nice when the blinker indicator actually blinks consistently. I feel like I have a thorough understanding of the system now.

sped372 wrote:slip ring contacts close the gap
Sure, you don't need to have a little blue light tell you the high beams are on, but it's nice.

These details all serve to help our cars be unapologetic in their participation on today's highways.
With my fiercesome 55w Sylvania sealed beam headlamps, I best know if the highbeams are on so I don't blind oncoming . . . moths.
Colin

Volts is good. The light output falls very quicky with even a small reduction in lights-on voltage at the lamp terminals. Sealed beams need all the help they can get, epecially with the oncoming glare of all those aftermarket HIDs (and people that never turn off their fog or running lights in the city).

Excited to get out there and see the difference on the road at night, now if only the rain would go away!

Well how do you see now?

Nice and bright this morning on the way in to work with no excess heat in the wiring. I have to adjust the right beam downwards, though. I think she's a bit cockeyed at the moment.