Dim Headlights

[gerth21]

Hey all was driving my '83 CJ7 home the other night and noticed that the left headlight was out. I turned on the hi beams and it worked so I figured it was the light. Replaced both, I'm like that with lights, and now the left is dim and the right does not work. If I hit the high beams they both work at full brightness.

Any ideas on what to check first?

 

[elwood blues]

Check the headlamp socket. As plastic gets old it deteriorates and becomes brittle. I would bet your headlamp sockets are getting brittle and the wire connectors inside aren't make good contact inside the socket. Find the three wires running to your headlamps and give them a wiggle, I bet one of them, probably the Low Beam wire is coming loose inside the socket. When you wiggle them, you may just get the low beams to come back on, but it might not stay on. You can get replacement ones from JCWhitney, Morris 4x4, just about anywhere. You'll just need to cut the original one's out, and splice the new one's in.

They look like this;

 

[Purple77CJ7]

Also check your floor dimmer switch. I had similar issues and it was the wire connector on the switch.

 

[Tommy]

I just had the same problem last night. My passenger side headlight wasn't working. Checked it out this morning and found that I was not getting good contact where the light went into the socket. I removed the wires one at a time from the socket, they clip in, and cleaned them all up. It works fine now. It might be easier to put a new plug in but I always like a challenge. A multimeter has become a valuable tool for working on all electrical problems on my CJ. Most of the time it's a bad ground or a wire that wasn't connected by the PO.

Tommy

 

[gerth21]

Thanks everyone I will look at that after work.

 

[Ruckus45]

So did that work? I am having the same problem now.

 

[TarheelCJ]

I just had the same issue. Dim lights on low beam, on high beam just the passenger worked. So I replaced the connector on the passenger side and then for the driver I just took the connector and dipped it in acetone. Cleaned it right up and they work great. Also.... the connector I replaced came with a smaller ga wire. I ended up popping out the old wires from the old connector and just recrimping new connections. Save your money and just go buy the crimp on connectors, pop the old ones out of the original and try to reuse it.

** The plastic may be old.... but if you look closely, it not the plastic that messes it up, its the old connections inside. Just take a small jewlers screwdriver and pop the little clips down and the wires will pop right out.

Label and replace!