Headlight switch problem fixed | FerrariChat

Headlight switch problem fixed

Discussion in 'Mondial' started by godabitibi, Jul 14, 2012.

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  1. godabitibi

    godabitibi F1 Veteran
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    Jan 11, 2012
    6,252
    Papineauville, Quebec
    Full Name:
    Claude Laforest
    #1 godabitibi, Jul 14, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    When I bought the car Stephane told me that to turn the lights ON you only have to go half the rotation with the switch for the light to stay ON. When the car arrived I tried them and hummmmm, strange. If you turn the know to full ON position the lights would turn off again. So today I decided I was looking at this problem. So I removed the rotating knob off the stalk. There is a retaining ring that you just pry off and then you can slide the knob off the stalk. Be CAREFULL there is a small detend ball and a spring and you don't want to loose them.

    At the bottom of the knob hole is a cam that operates the switch in separating the two copper blades to open(turn off) the circuit. At first I tought the cam in some way might have been place in the wrong position by someone in a previous repair. But couldn't see how. After a closer inspection I found the black wire was unsoldered from the blade. It was probably forced to touch when the swith was hafl way but released when in full position.

    I resoldered the wire in place taking care not to heat/melt the plastic by cooling it with a wet rag while soldering. Put everything back in place and it was working like it should.

    Little things that makes the car better everyday!
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  2. hank sound

    hank sound F1 Veteran

    Jan 31, 2004
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    Burbank, CA
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    Hank Garfield
    #2 hank sound, Jul 14, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2012
    Nice work, Claude !!!

    BTW, while most "pictures are worth a thousand words", yours are worth quite a bit more !! :):)

    Cheers, Hank
     
  3. godabitibi

    godabitibi F1 Veteran
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    Jan 11, 2012
    6,252
    Papineauville, Quebec
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    Claude Laforest
    Thanks Hank! My pictures and explanations were motivated by the ones Mike(soucorp) is doing. I'm trying to give what I like to receive from others.
     
  4. hank sound

    hank sound F1 Veteran

    Jan 31, 2004
    5,953
    Burbank, CA
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    Hank Garfield
    #4 hank sound, Jul 14, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2012
    I must say, this Mondial section of Fchat is becoming more and more, like "the little tribe that shares". Our families share trips and experiences thru visuals - which I'm not very good at. Maybe, before I plotz, I'll start to embrace "New Communications Technology".

    Anyway, it's fun to be able to communicate as we do - - and maybe, one day/weekend in 2013 ?? ....... we'll find a proper venue to have the "Mondials & Family" get together "to die for". Think "MONDIALS, USACAN"!!! - - almost reads like "yes, you'a can!" :):)

    Stay cool,

    Hank
     
  5. Valenzo

    Valenzo F1 Veteran

    Dec 4, 2010
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    Ted

    Love the idea Hank... Somewhere in the middle of North West and East since that seems to be where most of us are. Wait, I know, the mid west :). Would sure be convenient for me. Although Colorado sounds nicer.

    A Monstock of sorts.
     
  6. soucorp

    soucorp F1 Rookie

    Sep 20, 2011
    4,814
    Old Dominion
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    Mike
    Nice write up Claude, you just raised the help bar for our Mondial brothers in need.
    Enjoy!

    Mike
     
  7. godabitibi

    godabitibi F1 Veteran
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    Jan 11, 2012
    6,252
    Papineauville, Quebec
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    Claude Laforest
    Hey Mike I didn't raise the bar at all I just let it right where you put it ;-).

    Valenzo now you know what to do........... Organize the meet!
     
  8. Valenzo

    Valenzo F1 Veteran

    Dec 4, 2010
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    Ted
    Great write up Claude, thank you for that!!!

    Hmmm where to meet?

    I'll create a map with a dot of each persons home town, we'll connect the dots and draw an obvious conclusion based on convenience.

    If interested, I'll create a new thread with those interested to chime in with the name of their town and we'll go from there. Based on the level of admiration in our threads, it will be a hugfest.
     
  9. DavidJ

    DavidJ Formula Junior

    Feb 12, 2012
    387
    Northern NJ
    Full Name:
    David
    Wow you guys are something else!
    I would love to join this group meet up. Even though I'm one of the new guys here, I have already been bit by the Ferrari a few times. Dodged a few bullets and got things fixed with some elbow grease and luck. The knowledge base on this site is an encyclopedia. I would not have purchased my 1990 "T" without this support.

    I'm in Northern NJ. Put a pin in the map for me.

    DavidJ
     
  10. hank sound

    hank sound F1 Veteran

    Jan 31, 2004
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    Hank Garfield
    Ted, I like where "Monstock" comes from - - and also where it's heading. I'll throw this out for show & tell .......... MondiFair .

    If we really are going to do this, let's start a "get together specific" thread, and move forward from there.

    Cheers, Hank
     
  11. Valenzo

    Valenzo F1 Veteran

    Dec 4, 2010
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    Ted
    Sounds great Hank. MondiFest 2013, i should have my car by then :)

    Now, i need to start a sign in thread and take location suggestions

    stay tuned. i'll politely back out of Claude's great thread now
     
  12. godabitibi

    godabitibi F1 Veteran
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    Jan 11, 2012
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    Claude Laforest
    #12 godabitibi, Jul 16, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2012
    Ted you're alowed to back out only if you start that MondiFest thread.
     
  13. gsfent

    gsfent Formula 3

    Nov 16, 2009
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    PB County, Florida
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    Jerry
    ROTFLMAO!

    Regards,
    Jerry
     
  14. FamilyCar

    FamilyCar Formula Junior
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    Sep 26, 2007
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    Seattle, Wa
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    Peter Goodall
    Great photos. Now maybe I can fix my detent-or lack thereof. Thanks.
     
  15. porchnut

    porchnut Formula Junior

    Dec 2, 2014
    282
    Tucson, AZ
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    Andrew Bober
    Came across this old thread when I was searching for a fix for my headlight switch. Great stuff
     
  16. Alden

    Alden F1 Rookie
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    Apr 25, 2010
    2,903
    Central Florida
    Considering the chronic problems with the headlight stalk, and the high cost to replace it, I think this thread should go in the DIY sticky.

    Great photos, BTW!
    Alden
     
  17. ceb39

    ceb39 Formula Junior

    Sep 17, 2012
    483
    San Francisco Area
    Full Name:
    Chuck B
    What I learned when taking the light stalk apart.

    Good idea to put a white towel down on the floor of the driver's side of the car. You would be surprised how quick you can find the ball bearing you dropped on a white towel.

    Also, the ball bearing I used was 5/32". 3mm seems a bit small.
     
  18. 85cab

    85cab Rookie

    Jun 30, 2015
    40
    Ottawa, Canada
    #18 85cab, Oct 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    I've read through a few different posts describing the light stalk problem where a either the black or green wire breaks lose from it's solder point under inside the knob.
    But, I can't seem to find any posts that discuss where these wires go when they exit the stalk into the steering column.

    A PO of my '85 Mondial Cab., cut off both the green & black wires before they exited the stalk.

    In addition, the green and black wires coming into the steering column from under the dash (bundled with blue, blue/black dashes, white/black dashes, red, blue/long stipe black) have been cut off around the height of the ignition switch.

    I was hoping someone might be able to tell me where these four wires are supposed to go.
    Do I simply join the wires from the stalk with the wires from the steering column? Or do they perhaps meet at a terminal on the underside of the stalk unit?

    In the pictures I've included you'll notice that I replaced the green wire in the stalk with a red wire (it was the only colour I had in the correct gauge).
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  19. theunissenguido

    theunissenguido Formula 3
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    Jan 21, 2004
    2,371
    Argent/Brasil
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    Guido
    Black is always negative, so whatever black you find in those clusters you can connect it there.
    The green (in your case red) goes to a cluster with 6 contacts. From there it goes to connector W from the fusebox (upper connector on the right side from 4 lower ones) and 3 wire from the right (the green one, between purple and black/grey).
    You can test it from there what green you need on the steering.
    Succes, Guido
     
  20. 85cab

    85cab Rookie

    Jun 30, 2015
    40
    Ottawa, Canada
    Thank you for this. Knowing where the green connects to the cluster is really helpful.
    I will try to see how this works tomorrow.
     
  21. Mark C Harvey

    Mark C Harvey Karting

    Jul 17, 2018
    247
    West Hartford, Connecticut
    Full Name:
    Mark C Harvey
    This fix worked for me. The knob came off with gentle pulling away from the retaining ring and stalk. Soldering: I applied gentle pressure to the existing solder (using the tip of the soldering iron) and and it re-bonded easily.

    I used a plastic shopping bag to capture the bearing.

    Great thread, thank you!
     
  22. jkstevens2

    jkstevens2 Formula Junior

    Aug 25, 2015
    278
    Winter Park, FL
    Full Name:
    JK Stevens
    This is a great write-up on fixing the rotating end knob that turns the head lights on & off! Is there an equally informative write-up on how to fix the low beam hi beam function? The whole arm on my 86 Mondial Cab is floppy and sometimes it makes the lights flicker on & off.
     
  23. srephwed

    srephwed F1 Veteran
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    Apr 29, 2012
    6,450
    street,md
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    fred brown
    Cool beans. I wish I could figure out why when my headlight buckets are up they are off and when they are down they are on. Being the hillbilly I am I have made them work but would like to just flip the switch. Thanks for any help.
     
  24. theunissenguido

    theunissenguido Formula 3
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    Jan 21, 2004
    2,371
    Argent/Brasil
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    Guido
    Could be you have the wrong relais for headlights...

    Guido
     
  25. Alden

    Alden F1 Rookie
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 25, 2010
    2,903
    Central Florida
    FYI, the same fix (re-soldering a connection on the blade) worked to fix the missing high speed function of my windshield wipers.

    The wiper switch internals are identical and so is the fault - the wire comes loose from the blade.

    Before soldering, I separated the blades with a thick piece of cardboard and clamped a hemostat to the blade to act as a heat sink - didn't want to melt any plastic on the stalk.

    Now I have all three functions - intermittent, low and high speed. Although "high speed" is really not that fast, it is better than low when battling our daily thunderstorms here in Florida.

    I posted a thread on the fix in the DIY section.
    Alden
     

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