gsenn

The headlights in my 1984 944 will not work. They raise and lower okay, but the low beams do not come on. I can switch to high beam and they come on, but they only stay on as long as I hold the turn signal/cruise/dimmer arm in the on position. As soon as I let loose of the arm, they lights go out--I assume they automatically go back to the low beam, which will not work. The low beam fuses are good as are the high beam ones. There does not seem to be a headlight relay so I am guessing that the dimmer switch must be bad. Is the dimmer switch integral to the turn signal/cruise/dimmer assembly, or is there a remote switch somewhere that is controlled by the arm? Any help in this area is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

george senn, 1984 Guards Red 944, Citrus Heights, CA.

Luis de Prat

Sounds like the headlight switch itself is at fault. They're not cheap (~$50?), so try swapping with someone, or get a used one at a local dismantler. They do last a long time.

IceShark

Yeah, I think Luis is on the right track. I assume flipping the signal stalk forward to constant high beam doesn't work and you only get the high beam to work in the flash to pass mode. Those two modes for high beam have a different wiring route.

So, I also bet it is the main lighting switch - the **** style one you turn. You discovered that the headlights have no relays so all the headlight current runs through the actual switch. After awhile the switch gets carboned and burned up, especially if the car has ever been running overwatted bulbs without relays being added. With stock headlight bulbs you are probably running something like 10 amps for that load alone through that dash switch as opposed to only 150mA if it had a relay. That is a current load increase of 6667% so you can see why those switches give up the ghost after awhile.

I think I would go with a new switch for ~ 50 bucks. If you get an old used one who knows what sort of abuse that has gone through and you may be back to square one in a year or two.