Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Blown Fuse and Blown Mind

Took a few minutes and looked for a blown fuse to see if that was causing the dash lights from working. Sure enough, blown fuse. Had to run out to the gas station to pickup a 20-amp version and viola! Dash Lights.

It was so nice out the other night, I took it out with my dash lights fixed and noticed something interesting. The 68 has its bright light switch on the floor, a foot activated switch, just up under the emergency brake. During night driving I got used to driving with my foot on the switch -- so when encountering oncoming traffic, you can just flick your ankle and switch from brights to normal lights; and then back when the car passed. This habit was one that was burned in from when I was a kid, driving my 67 Mercury Cougar, which had the same bright light switch.

I noticed that when I braked, the lights would flicker. Then I realized, that when I put on the brakes, my body weight would transfer forward and cause my foot to depress the switch slightly, causing the circuit to the headlights to fail -- thus shutting off the lights. When I let off the brakes, they would jump right back on! When I moved my foot position away from the switch, the lights behaved perfectly; I had to laugh. It kind of blows your mind the funny things that go wrong with old cars.

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