lights, lights, lights

[Richharr]

Yesterday I spent the day tailgating with a bunch of Marines from my unit while we waited on word about one of our friends who died in a motorcycle accident earlier in the morning. After many stories and hidden tears, we decided we should go to the beach behind our base and drink some more:hoos: I had fun driving through the streams and stuff, but then it was time to go home, we were getting sober and it was getting dark. I put on my lights and our convoy of pick-ups, jeeps and suvs headed down the old runways, all of a sudden my lights started flickering on and off. this is not good because I have to drive for about an hour to get back to the cop infested city. My lights did this all the way home
what could it be?

[Mechman71]

Sounds like a loose ground wire, but it could be either the headlight relay or switch is on the blink. Start with the ground wire coming off the headlight sockets, then move on to the relay, then the switch.

[Shadly1]

Sorry about your loss.

Luckily, your headlights are a simple circuit. It's just battery, fuse, switch, light, ground. That's it. Seems like there should be a relay in there, but there's not... at least not in mine anyway. There's a relay for my aux lights, but not the headlights. Since it's flickering, check the places where corrosion would be a factor. The ground connection, all the connectors, the switch, the fuse, etc. Disconnect it, clean it, dab some dielectric grease on all these points and reconnect it. If that doesn't solve your problem, you may be replacing the switch or one of the wires. It's going to be VERY hard to diagnose with a voltage tester because your problem is intermittant.

[sevenslots]

When i originally bought my YJ the headlights didn't work at all. I cleaned all the conections at the bulbs and it worked. Then about a year after the lights would flicker every time i hit even the smallest bump. One bump they would shut off next bump they would come on. I fixed this by cleanning all the ground connections on the front clip. Clearred up and has been 3 yrs since the problem.

[mikibbee]

mine did the same thing.

in my case it was the ground wire, a little steel wool and your in buisness happy jeepin.

[James (Cubby) Culbertson]

Yeah, my lights died as I was doing 60 on a windy mountain road with a drop off into a river at around 0300. Talk about ****ting it. For me, it was the headlight switch.
Cheers,
cc

[Shadly1]

Well, the good news is that your headlights are REALLY easy to hotwire in a pinch. Carry aligator clips with you.

[Karma]

HI,
It sounds like a lot of folks have had headlight probems. Me too. As said above there is no relay. At least not on my '89.

My problem was the circuit breaker which is built into the headlight switch. The contacts had become dirty over time and caused the bi-matallic strip to heat up, due to excessive contact resistance, and break the circuit. After a couple of minites the strip would cool, make contact again and the lights would work again for a while. Then everything would repeat. The parking lights continued to work.

I would not call my situation a flicker. Just ON, then OFF. So, my problem may be different than yours. The fix was easy if you are a little handy with electrical stuff. Using an excellent contact cleaner called Deoxit I cleaned the contacts inside the switch. It's easy to take apart. The problem was fixed and stayed fixed. That was about 7 years ago.

Here's an important note:

Deoxit should be in every Jeeper's kit. This stuff is fantastic. It is the only contact cleaner on the market that I have any confidence in. I can speak with a lot of experience gained when I operated my hi fi repair shop and cleaned thousands of contacts. I never had a single return. Most contact cleaners I have used, and I have used many, are not worth a damn.

Deoxit is made by Caig Laboratories and can be purchased from MCM Electronics. I've heard that it may be available from some Radio Shack stores but I've never seen it there. It's a bit expensive but don't worry about that. It goes a long way. Buy the small spray can. You will thank me (I hope!). You can use it on any electrical contact you run across from power plugs, to audio cables and connectors, to keyboards.

http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MCMProducts&product%5Fid=200%2D040

The picture in the catalog is a little misleading. If you order that part number you will get the the spray can marked D5 and not the other stuff in the picture.

Sparky

[Richharr]

Karma, my lights didn't flicker, they went on and off, now they work fine. I'm probably going to buy a new switch anyway because it has given me problems before.