electrical and ignition Headlights & Horn Are Dead

[saaron]

Hi all -

 

Hope everyone is having a good summer.  It is flying by.  Getting in some good 02 mileage in the '72 tii.

 

The other day I noticed the horn stopped working.  Strange - it was working last time I tried it.  As I was checking out all the electrical items, it appears the headlights are not working, either.  Again, as of fairly recently, they were fine.  

 

When I hit the horn, the high-beam blue telltale lights up in concert with pushing the horn, and I can hear a relay near the headlights tripping.  

 

When I pull the headlight switch, the headlights are dead, and the blue high-beam tell-tale lights up.  The instrument panel lights go on like they are supposed to.  

 

I checked the fuses and they look OK.  Everything else electrical works - all other lights, turn signals, wipers, radio.  Just the horn and headlights are non-functional.  

 

I don't recall getting the car near any old British cars, either.  

 

Any ideas are appreciated.  Thanks.

 

Scott

 

 

[mikesmith]

Sounds like the ground for the front loom has come loose. Follow the wires back from the left headlight - there should be a bunch of brown wires come out of that bundle around the relay bracket, and they should all have ring terminals on the end that are bolted to the chassis.

[eurotrash]

try running your finger across your fuses and spinning them.  (yes) One of the oldest tricks in my 2002 electrical maintenance books..

 

My fogs and dash lights were out last weekend, I did this and all is well.  Hopefully yours is that simple Scott.

 

It may just be poor contact.

Edited July 16, 2013 by eurotrash

[saaron]

Per Mike's advice, now I think I may have caused this.  I put in a new voltage regulator, so I unscrewed the bundle of ground wires you are mentioning.  Maybe something happened in that process.  I will go back and check that.  

 

Euro, I will try your advice, too.  Fingers crossed.

 

Scott

[saaron]

Success!

 

I cleaned the grounding lug.

 

I had to finagle my new voltage regulator so that the ground was preserved.  The new voltage regulator is all plastic, so not conducive to helping being a grounding point.  

 

I went over the wiring in the front of the car and found a few wires that I wrapped up a little better.  One especially from where driving light wiring had been spliced in...had some exposed wire.  Not a lot, but still not good.  

 

I cleaned all the fuses and prongs w/an eraser while I was at it, per Eurotrash's suggestion around fuses.  

 

Horn is back, headlights are back.  Thanks Mike Smith and Eurotrash!  

 

Scott

[c.d.iesel]

Rule #  1  = remove fuses, clean and tighten holding fingers

 

 

 

 

 

Rule # 2  =  do Rule # 1

 

 

 

 

 

Rule # 3 = repair Happy Harry's botched wiring mods

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rule #  4 =  DISCONNECT BATTERY BEFORE AND OF THE ABOVE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rule # 5 = Don't Look In The Package.

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2013 by c.d.iesel

[jgerock]

One of my favorite movies (The Transporter).  Too bad for the 7-series.

 

Rule # 5 = Don't Look In The Package.

 

 

 

[jgerock]

Scott - good news on your electrical fix.  I recall reading about an issue Keith Kreeger had with his tii after rebuilding it.  The car had trouble starting and his lights were really dim.  Turns out the mounting screws holding the voltage regulator to the fenderwell were loose, causing an intermittent ground contact.  He used new hardware with some star washers and fixed the problem.  When I first got my car, one of the many things I did was to clean the ground points, especially the one at the VR and the one in the trunk for the rear lights and fuel pump.

Jim

Success!

 

I cleaned the grounding lug.

 

I had to finagle my new voltage regulator so that the ground was preserved.  The new voltage regulator is all plastic, so not conducive to helping being a grounding point.  

 

I went over the wiring in the front of the car and found a few wires that I wrapped up a little better.  One especially from where driving light wiring had been spliced in...had some exposed wire.  Not a lot, but still not good.  

 

I cleaned all the fuses and prongs w/an eraser while I was at it, per Eurotrash's suggestion around fuses.  

 

Horn is back, headlights are back.  Thanks Mike Smith and Eurotrash!  

 

Scott

 

[saaron]

Well Jim, maybe I should clean the grounding point in the rear next.  Good rainy day project.  

 

I did the grounding of the instrument cluster a while back, and that really helped w/the jumpy gauges.  

 

And being Mr Safety, I did everything with the battery disconnected!  

 

OK, I need to go for a drive now.

 

Scott