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artpart

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Strange problem...My right headlight went out so, for the last few weeks, I clicked on my high beams and have driven with them. Tuesday I changed out the headlight and, turning it on, it worked fine. Went to have the car inspected and the right headlight would not come on. Again, though, the high beams worked. Got home (having failed the inspection) and turned the headlights on and they both came on. Tonight the headlight would not turn on, but the high beams did.

I'm thinking of just ordering a new headlamp assembly. Any ideas before I do?
 
Could be a bad connection or broken wire anywhere, not just in the lamp assembly. I don't think it's a bad ground, since the high beam worked OK and it uses the same ground as the low beam.

I'm not certain, but I believe the TR6 still uses bullet connectors where the wires for the right & left headlights join. If so, I'd try switching the wires at that connector and see if the problem moves. It's not unusual for the contact inside the sleeve to break, resulting in an intermittant connection.
 
bad contacts in the dip switch? I had that problem on my tr7 fhc and the dip switch contacts were bad.
 
I just rewired the headlights to have relays, so it's still clear...

There are two wires for high and low beam. One is (or should be) blue and red, the other blue and white.

They go in the harness down the drivers side of the engine bay. They come out in front of the radiator. There is a 4-way bullet connector for each of them, with 3 wires into it. In each case, two go up to the lights (the passenger side across the front clip of the car), the other being the feed from the switch.

On the passenger side, down by the horn is another single connector from the pigtail to the wire that runs across the front. There is a similar setup on the drivers side (istr).

The ground is common, and goes to the spade on the front clip. If you ever unwrap the wiring harness, you'll be horrified at what they did in there, so don't!

If the light works then it's either the bullet connector to the pigtail or the 3-way. Try a continuity tester and you'll find it pretty quickly.

Good luck.
 
While working on it, be sure to clean all of your contacts including the ground. Coat everything in dialectric grease or something equivalent. This should reduce the chances of future corrosion problems.
 
The previous is my guess/the best advice.I had the same problem exactly.My problem turned out to be in the blue/white headlight harness wires at the multiconnector(s).My high beams were ok but when i switched to low beams on my 1500 Spit the wouldn't go on.I just pulled those wires out cleaned all the bullets,checked the grounds & walla.Mostly its the most obvious thats the problem,bad grounds & corroded connections.I had thought very hard about installing halogens but forgot that idea because of that wiring & heat buildup,i'm happy with my incandesents.I wish someone would come up with an engenious setup for mounting vibration free driving lights on the front of Spits.Those tiny driving lights i've seen mounted undernieth
Just aren't a logical solution.And they don't make badgebars for Spitfires unfortunatly.I've even thought about forming some sort of tubing to attach to the frame coming up & over the bumper to fix lights & badges to.
 
myspitfire said:
I had thought very hard about installing halogens but forgot that idea because of that wiring & heat buildup,
Click to expand...
Er, just to be clear, you can buy 55w halogens that work OK on stock wiring and don't generate any more heat (or use any more power) than the tungsten originals on US-spec cars. And halogen lamps ARE incandescent, the term 'halogen' merely refers to the gas used inside the bulb. They still have filaments.

Relays do optimize the light output, they will improve even stock tungsten lights, but they are not required for 55w halogens (which used to be called quartz iodide). You can just remove the old bulbs and plug in the new ones.

As it happens, I did just that on my latest Stag, because one of the bulbs was bad when I got it and the new CSR bulbs hadn't come in yet. As a stop-gap measure, I borrowed one of the 55w H4s from the other Stag. The difference between it and the other tungsten lamp is surprising.
 
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