Headlight switch confusion

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JLT
Old School!
Location: Sacramento CA
Status: Offline

Headlight switch confusion

Post by JLT » Tue Mar 08, 2022 7:56 pm

I looked at the headlight switch in my '71 bus just now. It has a marking stamped on it designating it as part # 211-941-531E. It's an aftermarket one, and lacks the #57 terminal that lights up the parking-light indicator on the dash when the parking lights are on but cuts out when the headlights go on.

The curious thing about it is that I went to the JBugs web site to determine the connector layout. It doesn't look like what they call a 211-941-531E at all; it looks, in fact, like a 113-941-531E, which they list as being fitted onto a post-1973 bug, Super Beetle, Ghia, or Thing.

So what gives? The switch seems to work well, except for not having that terminal 57. What was the number of the original '71 switch with that #57 terminal, and is it still available? Everybody seems to sell the later one, not the original.
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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JLT
Old School!
Location: Sacramento CA
Status: Offline

Re: Headlight switch confusion

Post by JLT » Thu Mar 10, 2022 3:53 pm

Update: I got an answer from somebody on the Samba that the original part number is simply 211-941-531, without the suffix. And it is now available only in rarite and unobtainium. The "E" switch is ostensibly a universal replacement, designed to fit a number of later-model buses and bugs and Ghias and Things and God knows what else. Most techs using this new switch just run the wire that used to go from 57 to terminal 58, which feeds the parking and marker lights, meaning that the parking indicator light doesn't go off when you switch the headlights on. It works, but not the way it did back in the goodle days.

I went a step further and connected the "speedometer lights" (which are now LED) to that same terminal 58 instead of 58b. Now they aren't controlled by the dimmer anymore, but I don't see that as a loss, since they were too damn dim in the first place, even with the LED bulbs. And it seemed that every time I hit a bump in the road, the dimmer would jiggle and make the dim lights go even dimmer. When I replaced the Sylvania bulbs with the LEDs, I found that the dimmer switch didn't want to work with them anyway; the LEDs want to be either on or off, with nothing in between.*

It was for this small re-wire that prompted me to take out the headlight switch in the first place, proving once again that a half-hour project can easily turn into a three-hour project, particularly when you have to replace that male 0.10" plug with a 1/4" plug and find a way to put many wires onto one terminal. I solved that problem by making a three-wire connector with one 1/4" male plug on one end and three 1/4" female ones on the other. Now everything works like I want it to.

*I also replaced the generator (now alternator) light with the LED bulb. Like the dash lights, it wants to be either on or off, which means that when I start the car, the alternator light stays on until the engine gets up to speed, whereupon it goes out and stays out. I'm wondering if I should have left the incandescent bulb in there, so that it could glow dimly when the alternator was only mildly unhappy.
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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Amskeptic
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Re: Headlight switch confusion

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:25 pm

Oy
a) the excitor diodes in the alternator require an amperage draw to get the alternator charging. Use the correct bulb.
b) the color temperature of led instrument lights is NOT conducive to night driving. Look at military aviation lighting, and you see red, BMWs too. Cold white blue-tinged light is completely wrong for our retina acuity cells (red and green cones near our focus point) which have to work hard at night.
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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JLT
Old School!
Location: Sacramento CA
Status: Offline

Re: Headlight switch confusion

Post by JLT » Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:22 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:25 pm
Oy
a) the excitor diodes in the alternator require an amperage draw to get the alternator charging. Use the correct bulb.
I'll re-install the original light, then. (The original was that somewhat brighter Sylvania bulb than the "stock" one, but still incandescent. I forget what the part number was.)
b) the color temperature of led instrument lights is NOT conducive to night driving. Look at military aviation lighting, and you see red, BMWs too. Cold white blue-tinged light is completely wrong for our retina acuity cells (red and green cones near our focus point) which have to work hard at night.
Interesting point. I picked the middle-of-the-range color temperature, since it matches the one in my Toyota and I've had no issues with it when driving at night. But if I find those ones jarring, I can certainly switch to the warmer ones.
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Headlight switch confusion

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:41 am

JLT wrote:
Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:22 pm

Interesting point. I picked the middle-of-the-range color temperature, since it matches the one in my Toyota and I've had no issues with it when driving at night. But if I find those ones jarring, I can certainly switch to the warmer ones.
I wish I had taken a photograph of Vanagon dash with the BMW orange. It was handsome as hell. The Kenwood AM/FM cassette had an orange illumination selector and it all was lovely.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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