No high beams- fuse ok

Stuart Lehr · 10-05-2003, 04:23 PM

Getting a 914 running after a 15 year hibernation and a few little glitches arise from time to time. Latest is no high beams on either side but they work when you flash the lights. Fuses look ok and I changed them anyway but to no avail. Can it be one of the black round relays on the fuse panel?

Amark · 10-05-2003, 04:28 PM

The relay on mine is the silver square one on the fuse panel. Sometimes you can pry it open & file the contacts to bring it back to life.

green71 · 10-06-2003, 07:07 PM

Sounds like symptoms I had a couple years back. I replaced the relay and that fixed the issue. If the original silver relay that Mark's talking about has been replaced, you might instead have a square black plastic relay instead.

If you do wind up replacing the original silver relay, you'll notice that the contacts on the later black plastic one are configured a little differently. You'll have to jumper a couple of contacts. Let me know if you go this route & I'll look up the diagram & send it to you.

Good luck!

Kenny Powell · 10-06-2003, 08:30 PM

I have a question for the Pelican brain trust.........Why did the 75' cars and I've seen others! not have the ground clip on top of the relay, that clips it to the fuse panel????? always wondered what the difference was and why that year only.........I think?

Tidybuoy · 10-06-2003, 08:36 PM

I had the exact same problem a couple of months ago. It turned out that the square metal relay that is under the dash needs to be grounded very well. It has a lousey design where it clips into place & the clip is the ground. I took the relay out & bent the clip so that it would have a nice snug fit - that worked!

Hope this helps.

Vern

Kenny Powell · 10-06-2003, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kenny Powell
I have a question for the Pelican brain trust.........Why did the 75' cars and I've seen others! not have the ground clip on top of the relay, that clips it to the fuse panel????? always wondered what the difference was and why that year only.........I think?

Let's try again

philinjax · 10-07-2003, 10:22 AM

The purpose of the metal tab on the case of many dimmer relays is to fasten the relay to the fuse panel. It has nothing to do with grounding and has no bearing on the operation of the relay.

Phil

Kenny Powell · 10-07-2003, 04:00 PM

Thanks Phil.............I think you answered my Question, one relay for all 914's, correct?

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

Now there is. Originally, non-US cars used a different relay from US cars (if I interpret the parts book correctly). Now both are listed with the same part number.

You may, however, have to do some creative wiring as already mentioned earlier in this thread. Depends on your car.

--DD

Stuart Lehr · 10-08-2003, 03:59 AM

It must have been a bad ground. Took the relay apart and nothing looked coroded. When putting it on just moved it around on the clip a little and they started working! Must be that clip does have something to do with grounding.

philinjax · 10-08-2003, 04:25 AM

Pull the dimmer relay off its clip mounting (so that it is not grounded) and you will notice that it still works perfectly.

Phil