Classic Mustangs List Archive

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Mail From: David L. Burkhead (email redacted)

With all the trouble I've had with this car (nothing major--yet, just
lots of little things) it's nice to have some things going right. This
morning, when I got to work, I noticed that not only were my interior lights
cutting in and out (annoying, but not really dangerous) but it looked like
my taillights had picked up the same annoying habit. Upshot was, on the way
home I stopped a the local auto parts store and picked up a new headlight
switch. Ten dollars and 15 minutes of cussing later (that old one did _not_
want to come out) and the problem was cured. No more cutting out and all
the lights seemed brighter. Looks like contacts and what not in the switch
were so corroded that they were preventing good contact and everything run
through that switch was weakened thereby.

On the matter of corrossion, I got another electrical problem resolved
based on the same source--my horns. Never did work. One day when checking
them I pulled them out of the car and used the jumper cables to get a
direct connection to the battery. Nothing. So, I just tossed them in the
back for later replacement (a fairly low priority item). Later, when
actually jumping my car, I discovered that the jumper cables were bad
(corrosion again, preventing a good electrical path). That caused me to
reflect on the horns. With new jumper cables I tried them again and they
worked. Cleaned up the corrosion on the terminal that plugs into the
harness and the ground connection. Popped the horns back in and low and
behold they worked!

There's a good feeling in solving my car problems, even with relatively
"little things" like these.

One lesson from this--if you have electrical problems, especially in an
older car, check for corrossion in the contacts. That might just be the
source of your problem and a relatively quick and cheap fix.

David L. Burkhead "If I had eight hours to
Advanced Surface Microscopy, Inc. cut down a tree, I'd spend
mailtoemail redacted) seven sharpening my axe,"
a1.com/asm Abraham Lincoln
Space -- Japanese Animation -- History -- Science Fiction
'72 Mustang
disclaimer: none of the opinions in this message are necessarily
those of ASM, Inc.


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