lights????

[diesel]

okay,..my lights work great. i just got my fog lights(bad bulbs) working. now, when i turn on the fogs the headlights go out and blink on and off .the same happens with the light on the fog light switch. stock alternator with new optima battery. 2 guage wires for p and n. switch??? help??

[rschonegg]

blinking headlights

mine did the same exact thing while driving back to INdy from the 2004 Reunion... about a 210 mile trip ... happened about 15 miles from home... after that my fog lights didn't work... took out the inline fuses that i have and put them back in and fog lights started working again.... so I'd love to hear from someone that says its an EASY fix...

[svobud]

Headlight switch.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

It's an EASY fix!

Well, at least it was on my son's 1D SVO last weekend. His complaint was that the the headlamps would turn off and on by themselves at night.

I removed the two screws on the core support ground wires. I showed him the lovely blue/green corrosion built up between the ground wire terminals and the threaded hole in the core support where it is supposed to be grounded. After a dab of baking soda, a wire brush and sandpaper to clean up the offending areas, I screwed the terminals back down. Turned on the lights and VOILA! No more flickering lights since then.

[GAboySVO]

On the road warrior, whenever I turned on the fog lights it would cause the head lights and fog lights to blink out once they got heated up. I followed the instructions fron NATO's site about instaling a 30 amp relay and no more problem.

http://www.turbotbird.com/FAQPage/FAQpage2.html#Rewire_Fog_Lights

and here:

http://www.turbotbird.com/techinfo/installing_headlight_relays.htm

I checked the voltage to the fog lights at idle with the original setup and I was only getting 9v. Now I'm getting whatever the battery puts out.

FYI: On the '86, the place where the left and right fog lamps are spliced is on the passenger side in the bundle under the VAM.

[diesel]

thanks GAboy, that sounds exactly like the problem i have. i will try that.

[AT6svo]

Yeah, Jeff K (Korn?) over at the turbo-tbird site is a bad-azz.

They have good tech articles/write ups there, 3G alt install, TFI replacement etc...

Now that I think about it, I never have ever tried to use my fog lights (the 84's were broken, but will be installed as part of the resto, my nice 86 I sold, I had the covers on all the time so I never even bothered!)

Anyway, enough rambling...

[Otto Man]

Headlight Switch

This is a comon problem. Like Bud said!
Just change your headlight switch, the thing that pulls in and out. And afterward change your fog lamp switch if its not already frozen, and put a relay(s) between fog lamp switch and fog lights.
I am working up a simple solution, but there are many others posted.
It's the light switch!!!!
Chris

[diesel]

so is it the headlight switch or the load problem fixed by the added relay? these are standard 55w fog bulbs.

[Otto Man]

I'm not an electronics wiz but the headlight switch is somehow overloaded with the fog lamps on. And this causes the headlights to flicker and turn off. Changing the headlamp switch will fix your problem, but the root cause is the draw from the fog lights through the switch itself. Change the headlamp switch and add relays for your fog lamps and the problem goes away. Or stop using your fog lights. I did! It's a Ford thing.
Chris

[AT6svo]

The switch is the problem, relay is the solution

The swtich was not designed appropraitely with the current loads assocaited for both the headlights and foglights. The current for the lights comes from the battery, runs through the swtich and then all the way up to the front of the vehcile to the lights.

Just the fog lamps are 55W, 55W/12V = 4.5Amps. Thats alot of current! And thats just one bulb! Multiply that by two and add in the parking lights, marker lights and the the main headlamps themselves and its quite a bit!!

The relay (s) allow the current load to be handled via the relay and uses the switch to turn on/off the relays. Very little current runts through the switch, which will now no longer overheat. A side benefit is typically providing higher voltage levels to the lights themselves since the voltage drop from the batt to the switch through t long wires then to the lights is elimiated. Ideally, the closer you place the relays to the lights, the better.

hth

[diesel]

okay...you guys rock. i will do the relay thing and switch if needed after. thanks for the help. --troy