Where did the high beam go on my '79 GT4

Still got my car up on stands after buying from the UK this year and am now checking over the lighting system.Rego probably next year.
Turn control stalk and parkers come on,press stalk down and lights pop up with headlights on,press stalk down to second position(high beam) and lights close down and fold away??????
What the heck!Where did my high beam get to?The relevant fuses are okay but I dont have a full complement of relays!
Anyone have similiar probs,sure would help to know where to start troubleshooting.
Anyone?
Geoff,Sydney OZ.

 

I found the lighting system in my '89 328 to be very poor so I upgraded and purchased new lights and bulbs(not sealed beams). I used this site for the upgrade to assist in wiring:

www.danielsternlighting.com

(no affiliation or benefits-kind of a quirky guy but seems to know his stuff and has some useful links on his sight)

Not sure what the problem is currently, sounds like someones been playing with the wiring and got some wiring crossed up? If it were me I'd spend the time wiring to upgrade vs. fixing as is.

just my .02 cents.

Jeff

Also there are some threads on lighting here from me and others, do a search. If you search using daniel stern you should come up with most if not all of them.

 

There is a relay to activate the 'external' lights which includes parking and turn signals. There are 3 relays to control the lift motors, a master and right and left. The right and left relays in conjunction with a set of positional contacts in the motors control the headlight bucket up/down movement.

When you twist the headlight stalk, the 'external light' relay is energized. It turns on the parking lights and sends voltage to the master lift motor relay. The right and left lift relays insure the headlight bucket is up.

Hope this provides an understanding of what should happen and is the first step in analyzing the problem. Often when things go wrong, a simple voltage measurement at the fuse block is helpful to pinpoint the problem. Course many guys simply start throwing money at the problem by replacing everything in sight. I do recommend having a proper wiring diagram to aid in the analysis and, as mentioned, a voltmeter.

If your headlight buckets are going back down even though the stalk has been twisted, it would appear the stalk switch is intermittent.

__________________________
http://www.FerrariDiagrams.com

 

Thanks for the angles fellers,I have been reading up on the relays and there is a Stribel manf. relay in the '79 GT4 system,I wonder if that is faulty?
I will check the column stalk control too!

 

I had the same problem and it was a relay.

 

Interesting how my US version gt4 operates differently. Twist the knob and the lights come on and the buckets raise, move the lever down and the headlights go out, the buckets remain up and the parking lights stay on, move the lever to the up position and the brights come on.

 

What?

Sure isn't what mine do ('75 US car)

 

Sounds like yours is upside down??????

 

Now if you can remember which one,that would help!!!

 

I would suggest that isn't the way it left the factory but some previous owner has 'customized' it, perhap inadvertantly. Not difficult to bring it back to normal.

 

This begs the question...what is normal for this situation. I recall seeing threads where 308 owners were modifying their set up so they could run their parking lights without the buckets raising.....

It's been a few decades but the first gt4 I drove, also a 75 us version operated the same way as mine. There was a brief moment of panic when I accidently turned the lights off mistaking the light stalk for the turn signal lever, thinking I was signaling for a left turn I turned the headlights off.

 

For mine it is normal that the parkers come on when you twist the column stalk,the buckets should only come up when you press to first position!

 

Sorry. Man came out, fiddled about with them, changed a relay and all was well.

 

Thanks anyway.
I did a bit more fiddling and I could hear the relays clicking as I went through each light setting on the control stalk.
At the bottom position(high beam) I could hear 2 clicks instead of 1 so I fiddled and the high beams came on, seems that the stalk setting is worn.
Now if I can limit the movement of the arm I wont be buying a new control setup!