theiceman

.. on the Porcupine the ****** are on the OUTSIDE ......

yep that was me tonight all the way home .. i was out for a ride on my favorite Country twisties in the full moon and clear sky .. and then it happened, my high beams got stuck on . At first they wouldn't come on .. then they wouldn't go off ( preverbial bad to Worse ) . then i had people flashig me , swearing at me at traffic lights ( had to turn off my lights completely.

I hope I can fix it and don't need a whole new " head " unit. I have heard this talked about before on our forum but don't remember the specifics. Anyone have any recent history with this ?

At least on the bright side I get to see how my edge shave gell cap is doing ..

rusnak

Do the high beams go off, and low come back on if you pull back slightly on the turn signal/ switch?

theiceman

naw .. on permanent . i am pretty sure it is the stalk .. just not sure if it can be replaced or fixed... 30 years ,, not a bad run I guess.

rusnak

Some people have had luck bending the copper contacts when it's a simple intermittent issue.

theiceman

i'll check it out tomorrow .. so far I am looking at about 120.00. Vertex seams the cheapest so far .. might be a good time to put in a relay so I am not doing this again in another 30 years
seams like more of a PITA than it is difficult. lots of wires..

theiceman

Well I took the switch apart . it is pretty well completely melted.... looks like i am going to have to fix it . After i figured out how it worked and chiped away all the plastic I am left with a little nub to work with .

looks like this plunger used to be about 2.5mm by 2.5mm by about 6mm tall .. now it is just a lump. I broke it up and need to glue a piece of bakerlite back in. Then I can shape it with my dremmel and sanding disk and put it all back together.

butzip

Phew, good luck with that. I just changed the whole turn signal switch in an 86', it's not bad at all. It took maybe 1/2hr. There's the plug which is obviously straight fwd and then the spade connections. I simply cut the old ones to get the old switch out of the way and did then one by one so as not to confuse them. No sweat....

JonH

Sorry about the switch, the only thing I don't like about a red Porsche targa is the unwanted attention, you got a year's worth in one trip!

whalebird

I have always heard the comparison(***** location) in referance to BMWs, never Porsche. Your excuse could be ..."it has the engine in the back".
Get a new relay also.

Ed Hughes

*****

rusnak

Bummer about the headlight switch! I have change a few over the years, and I always throw out the old one. I should keep them for cases like this when it could be possibly used to piece together a good used one.

You will have to remove some of the wires from the ignition switch. It's necessary to work around the hazzard switch. Do not attempt to remove the hazzard switch to make things easier. You may break off the plastic ears that hold the hazzard switch in the dash (like I did). If you do, you can use a zip tie around the switch to keep it in the dash.

It may be easier to remove the driver's seat. Make sure all of the connections are tight.

theiceman

I had the switch out in about ten minutes , no big deal really.Dropping th ignition switch is a must though .. just marked everything well.

There is a really good thread on pelican but the bottom line is there is a small actuator or punger that must slide through a 2.5mm by 2.5mm hole in one contact and hit the other contact. This is what melts , Actually I think what happends is you can get stcuk in the midle with both high an dlow on and this instantly melt the switch .,.

About a 120.00 for a new one .. unless of course you are a tight **** like me ..

If i loaded the pics in the right order the first should be the plunger taken out of the switch with the brown plunger that used to be about 6mm long melted right off.

I then happend upon an old piece of plastic with a 2.5mm by 2.5mm cross section. So i too my jeweles drikk and driled a small hole in the white plastic prosthetic and original stub.

I then used an ol LED clipped of a bit of the lead and used it is a peg to give the glue something to bite on . During my test fit it was tight as hell , hllo crap what a perfect fir.

the last pic is the complete asembly done.

To be on the safe said i have put a thin coat of JB weld on it and will sand it smooth , then reinstall with some switch grease. My test fit workd flawlessly.

I iwll let you guys know tomorrow if i managed to save 120.00

GothingNC

Does the headlight relay kit prevent this from happening?

John

imcarthur

That's the theory. Relays prevent the lamp voltage/amperage from routing through the switch - only the control circuit routs through them. What headlights do you have, Clive?

Ian

theiceman

I have H-4s , and yes the relay kit in theory is to prevent this from happening .... and i only have 55/60w bulbs so the myth of this being caused by high watage bulbs is hereby busted ..