one headlight barely working?

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ptimhere

NAXJA Forum User

Location

new london, ohio

• Jul 18, 2017

• #1

Before I try to track down the entire light harness, does anyone know of a particular problem that can cause the driver side headlight to be really dim/barely work?

We put a new headlight in and that did not help. And the prior owner put in the harness upgrade.

 

R

RCP Phx

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Phoenix,Az

• Jul 18, 2017

• #2

Check the ground!

 

Tim_MN

Freakish Hand Strength

NAXJA Member

Location

Minneapolis, MN

• Jul 18, 2017

• #3

Full performance requires clean wire plug connections and a clean and snug ground connection.

 

old_man

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Loveland, Colorado

• Jul 18, 2017

• #4

Check the bulb. Are both the high and low beams dim? They are two different filaments in the bulb and have two different power wires. The only thing in common is the ground.

So if only one is dim, you can pretty much bet it is on one wire. If both are dim, then it is the ground, but either way, check the bulb.

 

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ptimhere

NAXJA Forum User

Location

new london, ohio

• Jul 18, 2017

• #5

Ok, so here are the updates so far

checked the ground, it appears secure and is not goobered up

checked the relays on the harness, they are ok.

found a broken wire between relay and fuse block. Replaced it, still no joy.

both high and low beams are dim on the driver's side light.

will keep investigating.

 

Johnnie Walker

Piece of Fish!

NAXJA Member

Location

WA state

• Jul 19, 2017

• #6

Swap/replace headlight to confirm it is good/bad?

 

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ptimhere

NAXJA Forum User

Location

new london, ohio

• Jul 19, 2017

• #7

We did try a new headlight. I should have put that on the list of things we've tried so far. T

 

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90xj06

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Peabody, MA

• Jul 19, 2017

• #8

did you check that the ground is actually grounded? or just checked the connector to see if it was clean?

also what year?

whats happening with that light is it has no ground. inside the bulb the high beam and low beam have a common ground. this causes the low beam to search for a ground by back feeding the high beam circuit to find a ground. this in turn drives both the high and low filaments in the light and gives you a dim bulb.

 

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cruiser54

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Prescott, Az

• Jul 20, 2017

• #9

90xj06 said:

did you check that the ground is actually grounded? or just checked the connector to see if it was clean?

also what year?

whats happening with that light is it has no ground. inside the bulb the high beam and low beam have a common ground. this causes the low beam to search for a ground by back feeding the high beam circuit to find a ground. this in turn drives both the high and low filaments in the light and gives you a dim bulb.

Click to expand...

"Looking" at grounds doesn't work, does it?.

 

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ptimhere

NAXJA Forum User

Location

new london, ohio

• Jul 21, 2017

• #10

Its a 2001.

By checking the ground I meant that I took the ground wire completely off the bolt, verified the bolt was secure, then firmly reattached the ground.

It appears its a bad clip (?not sure what appropriate term is) at the light. Considering the completely fried wire I found further up the harness, I expect something had to cause that problem. I pulled the clip apart and put it back together and it appears to be working.

I'm still not sure I trust the harness, but time will tell.

Thanks everyone for your help.