headligh switch gets hot

[69judson]

When my headlights are on i can feel from the knob on the dash that the switch seems to get hot. everything woks as far as the lights go. Just wondering why the switch is getting hot and if that is normal. (It`s a 6 volt system)

thanks.

[Major Woody]

Contacts in switch are loose and generating resistance.
Rebuild switch.
Must open back of switch, clean contacts, and solder the internal connections.

[RareAir]

Or do it the easy way and buy a new switch
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1947 Typ 11a
1954 Typ 117
1956 Typ 151
1959 Typ 117
1959 Typ 265
1961 356B
1966 Typ 151
1966 Typ 241

[James1v1]

I had to change out my headlight switch. It got hot and the headlights would cut out. I had to run for awhile with an aligator clamp jumper. It can be difficult to find an original switch for the older cars. After reading these posts I might have to tear the old one apart to see what it looks like.
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56 Oval - Daily Driver
Single Family Owned

[Matts Bug Parts]

www.mattsparts.com

We have NOS oval HL swicthes in stock

[Eric&Barb]

Hi Volks,
Try the type2.com library for the headlight switch repair article we helped to write up. Also good thing to solder all the riveted connections in the fuse box up.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[69judson]

Thanks for the tips. I`ll check all the conections first and see if that helps. BTW the switch does get hot all the time while the lights are on whether that be HI or Low beam.
My car is a 56 and all the wiring is original. Looks to be in good shape however I have found that when I cut off some of the covering the copper inside is pretty green so I`m gussing there is some resistance because of this.

Thanks!

[richburris6]

old wires are oxidized and it causes a surge coupled with the six volt system causes problems. Probably the original cause for car manufacturers to go to 12 v. Replace it with all new and it will be as good as new, no pun intended

[billmetric]

I put a pair of 6 volt H4 bulb assemblys in my '55, talk about HOT, the switch would get somewhat warm normaly with the standard bulbs but with the H4s eventually my dimmer switch on the floor heated up and the lube in there would melt and then reharden after driving at night resulting in no lights at all unless you pumped that floor dimmer for a while, I took apart the dimmer and the grease in there was more like wax, cleaned everything up and got it working as good as new again, I had planned on installing an extra large hot wire from the batery and a relay somewhere to take the load off of the old switches but havent bothered yet since I dont drive it at night much anymore, my '55 is euro spec and had a weird early switch in it, was bigger around than the american switches, eventually I had to replace it with a NOS one when the screw terminals burnt up and froze in place, never have seen another early euro switch
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There is an idea of a Billmetric; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there...

[vw56german]

While checking all the connections at your switch and cleaning up all the terminals, dont forget to look at the ground side too. Bad grounds can cause a multitude of troubles too.