Headlights

[elwood blues]

On the way home from work Saturday night, I had the ever loving scared out of me...

Driving home, the back road that I normally take is kind of a winding through the woods road that gets decent traffic. It's 11:00pm (ish) and I'm just cruising along at about 45mph, on and off of the high beams as traffic passes. No, top, no doors, it's a beautiful warm humid summer night. I get to this one uphill, wide sweeping left hand turn, and BAM, every light on the CJ just turns off. Not a loss of electrical power, just the lights. Now let me tell you it was freaking DARK , so I let off the gas, and tap on the brakes, because I'm not 100% positive how far into this corner I am and the only thought in my mind is $h!t I'm going into the woods... Anyway, tap the brakes, all of the lights come back on...

So, needless to say, that puckered the sphincter right up, and my heart was going about 800 bps.

Rest of the way home, no issues. I've never had this happen before. I'm thinking loose wire on the hi-beam switch, or maybe the switch itself is going bad, any insight?

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Go through and re-new all of your ground connections.
Ck/clean you battery connections also-
LG

 

[hdgapeach]

Mine used to do that when I would run the high beams until the dimmer switch heated up. Kick it down to low, the switch cools down and I was back in business.

Heck of an adrenaline rush, though! Ain't nothing like controlled panic to get the ol' blood pressure up.

I ended up installing Jimbos headlight relay harness and haven't had a problem with the same dimmer switch since. I still haven't replaced it (probably should) because it doesn't get hot anymore.

 

[Torxhead]

Interesting issue Elwood, I think I would go with your suggested remedy also.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

If the switch is get'n hot-You also have a GND issue.
The GND connections on our CJ's are known issues.
I would be ck'n that dimmer switch also.
LG

 

[Torxhead]

So this would be a weak ground at the lights or the light switch? The light switch is grounded at the dash and the headlights are at the back of the radiator housing, both poor locations. Possibly a worn headlight dim switch could produce a bad circut and be the problem, with an old Jeep maybe all of the above.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Like I said-Clean and renew ALL of your GND connections.
It could be one location today and another location in a month.
Use SS bolts/nutz and external 'star' washers, on bare metal then seal them with liquid electrical tape.
Use an external 'star' washer under the two bottom dash mounting screws also.
LG

 

[jdcaples]

I'm guilty of using a bus bar and an 8 AWG wire to the negative battery post for handy, reliable ground.

Since owning a CJ - and in addition to liquid tape - there's a lot of Ancor Adhesive Lined Heat Shrink Tubing cached around my house.

-Jon

PS: Corrosion-X (Marine Industry and Boating) works well. so far, at keeping the corrosion down and the current flowing through my switches.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

8 awg stranded will not carry the full load.
I used #4 stranded, and 1/0 arc-welding cable for starter, winch and engine to frame GND.
.
LG

 

[jdcaples]

8 awg stranded will not carry the full load.
I used #4 stranded, and 1/0 arc-welding cable for starter, winch and engine to frame GND.
.
LG

For the heavier duties, like starter etc, I use 1/0 welding cable. I have 2AWG wire from the alternator to the starter solenoid relay. The 8 AWG is for the stereo, gauges, one relay switch and other instrumentation/illumination.

I thought I wrote, "under the dash" next to bus bar, but I must have edited it out.

-Jon

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Try the 'star' washer trick on the dash mounting screws.
LG

 

[elwood blues]

If the switch is get'n hot-You also have a GND issue.
The GND connections on our CJ's are known issues.
I would be ck'n that dimmer switch also.
LG

No, if the switch is getting hot it's because it's getting excessive current through it (beyond what it is rated for), or the current is arcing across the internal contacts. A bad ground would cause a loss of current path, current can only be drawn, it can not be pushed.

Yes, CJ's are notorious for having bad grounds, but that does not answer my question.

Beyond that, thanks for completely hijacking this thread and turning it in to another one of Lumpy Grits' tutorials about how everyone's CJ should be. I'm locking this thread