Electrical lighting questions

Hey everybody,
So, somewhere along the line there has been some electrical....work done on my '72 Riviera. I will not comment on the competency as I do not want to offend anybody but let's just say a lot of electrical tape and all wires are red (even ground!)

So my first question is this. When I turn on the sidelights, the front indicators light constantly. I have taken the indicator assembly out and can see a connector that seems to have been added.

In the main light assembly, I can see what looks like the sidelight. It has a ground connection but nothing else. I am assuming that if I disconnect the added cable from the indicator and connect it to this light, the sidelights will be back to normal?

 

Side marker lights will illuminate with parking/headlamps on, and will alternate flashing with the turn signals, both front and rear. If you are talking about cornering lamps, they will illuminate "ON" with turn signals and not flash. ws

 

In the second picture, the arrow is pointing to a smaller bulb that is in the lamp assembly along with the main headlight. What is that light? Is that the sidelight?

 

Erik Nice lights.. Need to find a set of them over here..

 

Omg Erik that would be amazing! You're more than welcome!!

Yes, you are correct, from reading the manual the term in America is parking lights and over here we call them sidelights. The photo is exactly correct. It seems that what somebody has done is taken the sidelight cable and plugged it into the indicator housing - weird.

So I can remove the spliced cable from the first picture and connect it to the parking light bulb? There is a whole load of other weird cabling going on. I'll take some pictures and add to this thread to see if anybody can decipher it all.

 

Thanks for posting. It got me to looking again found me a set NOS date 17/12/98 Cibies. complete with lamps... and city lights.

 

Thanks Eric. I know about the Hella USA .. I think they are made a bit different than Non export E-Code. The Cibie lights are night & Day difference... Plus I get my city lights also..

 

Nice.. But Im good right know. This set wasn't to bad priced. About $180 with both sets of lights

 

Hey Erik, I will get back to you on that in detail but this is the important part:
When pulling the light switch to one notch position, at the front of the car the indicator (or turn signal) lights light up. That is the lights in the lower part of the bumper (shown in my first pic.) The parking light in the main headlight assembly do not work at all (as they only have a ground connected as shown in my second pic.)

I'll post back with more details and pictures.

 

Ah, thanks Erik. I will go and take pictures of mine in a moment but basically the lights on the attached picture, do not light when I pull the switch to the first notch.

 

Thanks very much for the info Erik. I am going to test now and take pictures. I'll post back soon.

 

All of the following pictures and tests were done with the engine off and ignition set to accessory position.

Ok, so here are the first 4 pictures. This is with the switch at first notch. As you can see on the front, just lights the indicators dimly at the bottom and the orange sidelights, no lights on in the headlight unit. The license plate bulb also seems to be out, so I will look at that now.

 

Next 4 pictures are the switch at the second notch.

 

And finally full beam

 

So:

• At no point is the little bulb indicated in this picture illuminated.
• Turning the light switch all the way to the left does click and does turn the interior lights on.
• Turning it to the right seems to make no difference to the dash. There seems to be no dash lights at all, however it might just be too difficult to see during the daytime. I have not driven the car at night or tested the lights at night yet, so have not noticed the dash lights.

 

Ah I see! Thanks Erik, now I understand. So the little lights have been added to please the authorities but then disconnected to restore the original look.

Now the hazard light switch is interesting. You can push it in but it does not stay in and the indicators flash very quickly.

 

Either the flasher is Kaput, or theres a bulb burned out somewhere. Was there ever a trailer hitch on the car? Trailers tend to overload a flasher causing premature failure! I think that Riv has two flashers; ione for the signal lamps and one for the emergency lamps. ws

 

Thanks guys, yes I do have the owners manual and did have a look in it. The button does not behave in the correct way. When pushing in, it does not stay in. In order to make it work at all, you have to pull it back towards you slightly, so there is obviously something wrong with the switch itself.

There are no indicators burned out, I have replaced all of the bulbs and they are all working.

The flasher being wrong or broken could be a possibility as there is all sorts of aftermarket wiring going on under the dash. I will supply some pictures when I can.

 

Some of those 4 way switches are self cancelling. When turning back out into traffic, theyll shut off automatically. You may have a worn or cracked turn signal switch plate inside the column. ws

 

The flasher button is activated by pulling it out until it clicks; off is push in. It’s somewhat hard to do (little knob, stiff action), probably designed that way to make it hard to hit by accident.
Patrick