Re: Why would my headlights be dim?

Posted by JeromeSolberg On 2017/5/11 1:46:11

Dear Brenda,

The windshield wipers are purely mechanical/vacuum. Probably they need to be rebuilt, people all seem to send them to wiperman.com, apparrently the service is good and the price cannot be beat. I'm planning on doing this myself.

My experience with all the electrical stuff on these 6-volt systems is that the most important thing is to clean all the electrical contacts. Sometimes that is as simple as twisting the bulb in its socket a bunch until it wears the oxidation away. Sometimes that means taking a file or some sandpaper to the contacts. A selection of wire brushes and small files, bought for very little money, seems to be invaluable. That includes things like the connection of the headlight to ground.

One of the main reasons, as far as I understand, why manufacturers went to 12-volt systems was they are more tolerant of dirty contacts. When you have a dirty/oxidized contact, it takes a a volt or two just to burn/tunnel through initially. If the electricity has to go through a couple of those then it would be pretty bad.

One thing to check would be to run a couple of temporary wires directly to a headlight from the battery, one for the ground and one for the "power" side. That will give you an idea how bright the headlights can get, if you clean all the contacts.

The problem with the turn signals is almost certainly the various contacts, assuming you have checked the bulbs. Go around and check each bulb, spinning the bulb in the socket and in the thing that supports the socket, a bunch. That should help.

Since this is a "global" problem, one thing to check would be the main connection to ground (the frame) from the battery. That would not necessarily affect the engine as much as the headlights and everything else. That's the red wires that go from the battery to the frame and I believe to the engine block as well. It could be the connection to the engine block is good but the connection to the frame is corroded.