IML: Headlamp Switch Failure

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A while after I bought my '64 Crown Coupe, I realized it had intermittantly 
working tail lamps. One dark night, a very nice police woman advised me that 
I had no tail lamps. I was close to home and she allowed me to drive it 
back.

Come to find, the tab for the tail lamp connector on the switch had actually 
broken off and would infrequently make just enough contact to light the 
tails. I know I saw them work when I bought the car and a few times after. 
I'm thinking that some corrosion ate through the tab over time. The plastic 
had melted a little indicating overheating in that area of the switch as 
gradually less metal material was there to carry the load.

I got a new switch (made in Taiwan) from my local parts house and not really 
liking the feel it had when I pulled out the stalk and twisted it, I opted 
to pull the one from my '69 Dodge Van. The stalk operated more smoothly in 
this old switch (worn in/out?) so I installed it and all was well after that 
with my tail lamps. I put the new Taiwanese switch assembly in my van where 
it's rougher feel is rarely noticed.

Reaching up in back of the '64 dashboard is no treat and you'll usually come 
out scathed, but rarely will you actually lose any fingers up there. I 
remember this being one of the first things I did when I bought my first 
car, a '65 Crown Coupe back in '77 and I couldn't believe the way I had to 
contort myself to push that release button on the switch.. I was detailing 
my dashboard and replacing the dashboard lamps from behind the dash. My 
whole arm looked like I had a fierce encounter with a big cat by the time I 
was done. I had been warned about this by an Imperial owning friend of mine, 
he'd met up with the same kind of dashboard cat apparently.

In sum, those tabs can develop problems on the headlamp switch assembly, 
rare as it may be. Another place to look is the multi-pin connector that 
fits onto the back of the instrument cluster, and making sure all those 
female pins are tight and haven't opened up too much, and are free of 
corrosion. Reaching up back there and moving it back and forth may answer 
the question. I'm not sure if the switch label lamps, those residing behind 
the curved metal facias, are dependent upon that multi-pin connector on the 
back of the altogether seperate instrument cluster. If this was known, maybe 
one could determine if it is just oxide junk in the rheostat or if it is an 
isolated circuit like the multi-pin connector.  .

Eric
'64 Crown Coupe
____________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: IML: Headlight Switch Removal
From: mrs954@xxxxxxx
Ya, I already did that 49 bazillion times, but i'll try it another bazillion 
to be sure.? Last week I had them working until I hit a bump, then i got the 
working again, until I turned on the dome lights, but now there is nothing. 


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