headlights doing my head in

[160jsss]

Ok I know Datsun's use the earth to switch the lights, but I only have high beam at the mo I turn the lights on nothing happens till I hit high beam the realy seems to be working as I can flash the lights buy pulling on the stork what have I missed thanks in advance to any help

[classicdat]

Dumb question but have you check the fuses with a test light?

[Bartman]

Good old datsuns don't run a relay. They run full voltage through the switch. It's my understanding that this leads to a heat build up, which can cause the contacts inside the switch to receed into the plastic. The result is lights no worky.
I don't know if the beams would still work in this situation though.
I do know that datsunboy's headlight switch shit out before the hanmer cruise last year.

[85_Z31]

What Bart mentioned is a common problem - it Happend to me also.

Best bet is to find a working switch / stalk thing then use that to switch some relays, this way you can achieve 2 things

1) is to fix the original problem of a burned out switch / stalk
2) re route for example the left hand side head light wire into a pair of relays so that they can switch full current high power direct from the battery ( fused of course )

Most likely you will end up with much brighter headlights( mine were tons brighter ), and because the headlight stalk isn't switching any meaningful amount of current it will now last forever.

I used Amplifier power cable and Amplifier heavy duty fuses, from jay car or dick smith or where ever.

something like this

[160jsss]

Yes Bart I think you are right about the switch getting full juice I guess what I need is some one to explain how the high low beam relay works just can't seem to get my head round how to fault test the lights.
The lights as both lights work on high beam but there's nothing on low beam and one of the first things I looked at was the fuses as that seems to be the first thing to go wrong.
I've also did the search thing but still in the dark
I have relays i was going to hook up two on each side

[kyteler]

This is going to sound like I'm being a cunt, but.... have you got the lights switched on with the the lever in the right position?

[160jsss]

This is going to sound like I'm being a cunt, but.... have you got the lights switched on with the the lever in the right position?

Ha Ha you have win the best answer to a dumb question

Yes I've pulled out the light switch on low beam i get zip but on high beam i get all lights going even a nice blue light on the dash ?
Could it because i have not got the fount park lights plugged in ? I would have thought they would run in parallel rather than in series.

Thanks to James put me at a starting place and thats at the low high beam switch

[kyteler]

The lamps on the VB110 and H230 have confused many a WoF tester. The VB has a two stage pull switch for the lamps and then the lever to engage/disengage the high beams if you've got either of these two in the wrong place your mains won't work, the H230 has a single stage pull switch for the lamps and then the lever operates between high, main and parkers.

I can imagine the J is more like my K which is a twist switch to engage parkers, then lamps and then the full beams are engaged and disengaged by the lever that the indicators are on but who knows, there's some random as shit layouts

I just wanted to check to make sure you weren't pulling shit apart for no reason at all.

[160jsss]

Yes I hear you I'm down to u ram it ie timaru this week again so will sit down and start at the basics in the weekend! Work out where I lose power and why I've got some good wiring diagrams for the j it's just that they run the switching side of the negative side so just need to work through it in my head so I can hook up the relays it's the last thing to do before I paint and get it wof. And reg

[160jsss]

Yes Yes got them working started at the relay when it gets a pulse of power it switches between high and low beam ,after a clean up I got it working on the bench but not in the f@#king car .
Worked my way back to the high low beam switch it was just a bit loose as i moved it i heard the relay click happy days says I
Time to go nuts with the contact cleaner and we cooking with gas .
Next job is to hook up some power relays to stop voltage drop .