Fixing The Keykeeper's Pickup Truck Headlight Switch

[luke4090]

Ever work the sewing machine into the project? lol

[uxwbill]

@luke4090 Nah...maybe we should have!

[maplewoodsp]

Cool... What did you use for anti-oxidant? I like Caig products.

[uxwbill]

@maplewoodsp I don't remember now. The switch did eventually have to be replaced due to plastic failure.

[me748]

same story with my 90 silverado. switch got pushed through the dash shroud. mine were delayed and finally stopped working all together. when i was fixing up the inside of mine, i took the shroud off and took the switch and dimmer wheel switch apart cleaned and sanded the copper on the headlight switch and jb welded the switch assembly back to the dash shroud. works great now.

[ArcaneLion]

Nice Video!

You made some good comments about that switch. I had the same problem with my Opel Omega Caravan. It's great fun loosing the lights in the middle of the night while driving 160 Mph on the german motor-way.

Its a real deathtrap...

I have no idea what or IF they were thinking when they dicided to run all the power through the switch.

[uxwbill]

That's how nearly every older vehicle did it--by running the power through the switch in the dash. Only later did the use of relays start to show up.

I'm surprised that they didn't protect the lighting circuits separately so that if one light had a problem the other would stay on. My guess is that it's a cost thing--that much more wire and another switch contact wouldn't be cheap over a production run. Or maybe they just never thought of it.

[HDXFH]

i've never heard of noryl must be a very common plastic then

[uxwbill]

It's said to be a combination of polyphenylene oxide and polystyrene, which would certainly explain its texture and fragility.

Interestingly--assuming the WP article is correct--it's also an unusual combination for a plastic formulation since most polymers are incompatible with each other.

[howdy0473]

my only problem with your videos is you dont make enough of them have a great weekend bill

[uxwbill]

We do what we can! :-)

I work full time and do computer consulting at other times while the Keykeeper works a "real job", runs his lawn care/snow removal business, and goes to school five days a week. In other words, we are very busy without even considering what we do for Youtube.

[howdy0473]

im sure you all are very busy. just want to tell you guys i really enjoy and look foward to seeing what yall are up to. have a great weekend. :-)

[DanteFox]

I remember changing a light switch in my 84 cougar. But it turned out that it was the dimmer switch that caused my lights to quit working.

[uxwbill]

Quit abusing Unicode and don't bother with your spam here. Reported to Youtube...

[MrStelmer]

I cannot believe that there's no relay for the headlights.

Having 10a going through a switch is a bit stupid. Well done though for fixing it.

[mgospeed31]

I really like these old trucks. Makes me miss my old 1994 F-150.

[Ajaces]

I experienced the non-rigidity of those plastic headlight mounts on the dash panel.

[jefferyb304]

The Oldsmobile my Mom had made me wonder if General Motors stands for expensive cheap that breaks down repeatedly. At times I think quality has only gotten worse over the years.

[gthyfah]

I was surprised you didn't run it through the dishwasher. On my first car I had to do the sand paper trick to clean the fuse block contacs. Those glass tube fuse blocks were a pain in the butt. A little bit or corrosion and the lights would dim and the radio stopped working. Have you tried the steel wool on a dowel trick for cleaning light bulb sockets? You just spin some around the dowel and use a nail or a tac instead of glue.

[uxwbill]

The dishwasher is for computers and "icky stuff".

It probably wouldn't do this switch any good, as it would drive the lubrication out of it completely and feed it to the water pump (which probably doesn't like pumping grease).

[bulldog0046]

Man I wish I had the patience to do that, I would have gave up a long time ago and went to the junk yard

[uxwbill]

The only problem being that you can't know if the one from a junkyard is any better.

[cosurecad]

Thats true bill, ive got me a 90gmc sierra(same dash as the keykeepers) the headlight switch works great still(20 years old now) but i had to fix the clips that hold it into the cheap plastic, i fixed it with pop rivits,hold tight now.

the 88-94 gm trucks were sure tough!!!

[greywolf45]

I've had my headlights go out due to a ***** of, well i won't go there, since i get mad every time i think about that row of mailboxes i took out cause i couldn't see them.

[uxwbill]

I'm going to guess "circuit breaker". (And I hope it doesn't upset you that I did.) If so, you didn't know it, but you've done a very good job of guessing what part 2 will be about.

[greywolf45]

On these old country back-roads, it's gets pitch-dark once the sun goes down, so when i rounded a corner one night, my headlights went out, causing me to mow down a row if mail boxes.

[greywolf45]

My truck was a '76 C10 Chevy, A basic truck that was the best vehicle i ever owned. The only thing that ever happened to it was the headlight incident. It got 14-16 mpg, which is good for a 350.

[JakeDaSnakeFilms]

I had a similar prob in my 88 GMC 2500, only it was a big "white" POJ... not saying cuz it GM, but because of that particular teeruk :\

[uxwbill]

The Keykeeper gives me almost as much of a hard time as I give him. And that's really all I'm doing when I call his truck the "big brown piece of junk" ... because he makes remarks about my "little toy truck".

[tpirjunky]

The Keykeeper's big brown 1994 piece of crap - that's new. I love it, LMAO!

[01GPGT]

might want to put a relay in there that will by even more time for tha poor old switch

[kjm1983]

Good job, although when it finally goes for good you'll be out a whopping $20.99 for a new switch at the parts store. I had to replace mine, and yes the bolt holes are broken.

215,000 on my '90 GMC and the most worn things so far are the inside door handles and armrests.

[uxwbill]

$21 isn't bad, but this is likely to be an effective and long-lived fix.

Yes, GM's door handles and armrests do seem to take quite a beating. Both of our Buicks have broken down armrests in the doors.

[SpeedSwordCarbon]

easy and cheep fix

GM charge to much i think