What's up with my headlights? 76 hilux

Discussion in 'Exterior/Body' started by Barnacles, Apr 9, 2013.

  1. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    The outter two driving headlights work fine - they come on when I pull the knob. However, when I push the turn-signal multi-switch lever forward, as I normally would to switch to my hi-beams, the normal driving lights just turn off! I expected the normal driving lights to stay on and the hi-beams (inner two) to come on. Are my hi-beam bulbs just dead? Are the replacement bulbs easy to come by, or are they super spendy because they're old? Why don't the regular beams stay on?

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
     
  2. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    So, I finally got a Haynes repair manual for this vintage and dug a little deeper.

    It appears that the inner two bulbs on my truck have a single filament and the outer two bulbs have two filaments inside the sealed beam glass bulb. To me this makes it look like the outer two bulbs should have hi-beam functionality and low-beam functionality, while the inner two bulbs have a single functionality, whatever that may be.

    Can anyone with these dual round headlights please tell me what their functioning set of bulbs looks like? And which bulbs specifically light when you have low-beams on and hi-beams on?

    I found these on JCWhitney... but they only seem to have a hi-beam functionality according to the description. Anything help is appreciated - I'd love to be able to properly drive at night. Thanks!
     
  3. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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  4. first80toyota

    first80toyota Addict

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    If they are wired like my '78, the outers come on with low and then when you turn on high beam the inners come on and the outers switch to the other filament.
     
  5. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Thanks for checking yours. I looked through the lenses at the filaments in my bulbs and it looks like they should operate the way you described - two filaments on the outers and one filament for each inner. Furthermore, the filaments actually look OK, so I'm not sure why they're not working. I'm guessing I have some wiring failure somewhere, so I'll have to dig around some and then I'll post up what I find.

    If anyone knows of any quirks typical of these headlights that causes failure, please feel free to chime in.
     
  6. burnzya

    burnzya Grand Toyotaholic

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    outers are lows. inners come on with brights and switch filiments on the outside.

    my local autozone stocks the bulb. but usually only one at a time since they aren't common. they're like $12
     
  7. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Cool, thanks. I guess I need to test the wires this weekend, because the filaments inside the bulbs look fine visually. I'll check it out and post up here if I discover anything.
     
  8. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Okay. I checked the wires and filaments... Everything says my headlights should work in "hi-beam" mode except that they don't. Low beams work fine until you push the switch to hi-beam, then the low beams turn off and the high beams don't even come on! Perhaps it's a blown fuse or relay... perhaps, but I can't even find a fuse or a relay for the headlights!

    Can anyone with a 76' tell me where the headlight relay is? I checked the the repair manuals and they just have the info for 77'-on relays. Super frustrating. Since the turn-signal and headlight relays are next to each other, I checked where the turn-signal relay is. As far as I can tell from the sound underneath the dash, the relay is all by itself mounted to the firewall in pretty much the dead center underneath the dash.

    Any help is appreciated!
     
  9. MegatherioN

    MegatherioN Member

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    This is the headlight relay of my '76, If you have the smog stuff still in your truck, check under the vacuum switch plate. I think mine was under all that stuff.
    [​IMG]
     
  10. standardbyker88

    standardbyker88 Grand Toyotaholic

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    My headlight relay is behind the fuse box on the kick panel on my 78. When I bought the truck none of the headlights worked. Swapped that and they came back. The lights should be 2 low beams and 4 high beams. Inners aren't wired for 2 phase. It sounds like your selector switch isn't working. Take the steering wheel off and inspect the blinker/selector assembly. Clean all the contacts and make sure everything seems good. I have a few spares if that's the issue. I reconditioned my original when I changed steering wheels years ago. Hope you figure it out.
     
  11. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Alright. I know it's been a few since you guys replied to this, but I really appreciate the insight. I've been blown out for a little while, but I think I'll finally be able to get back on this. I drove the truck at night a whole bunch last weekend, and with only two bulbs - country driving kinda sucks and is almost dangerous with the coastal deer population the way it is.

    I'll dig into it and post up here where the relay happens to be...
     
  12. da9guy

    da9guy Member

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    any news?
     
  13. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Update time... after a long hiatus of not working on my truck and having it mostly just sitting in the driveway, I've decided to try and get the thing working and reliable again.

    First up is headlights because its already getting dark at 6pm here in Oregon and I'm not in the mood to hit a blacktail with my truck right now.

    After some digging I did find the relay exactly as pictured above. It was bolted onto the underside of some of the smog-pump equipment. I searched for quite some time before finding a place that would send me one (for $34, ouch). I'm hoping it is the correct one - I will post up to this thread once I install and test the thing.

    For the record the Denso 056700-1343 relay is no longer manufactured or available. In 1990 it was replaced with the Toyota 85916-20010 relay, followed by the Toyota 85916-35010 relay in 2009. According to the literature, all three of these part numbers correspond to the same effective part. If nothing else, maybe this will help someone with a similar headlight problem.
     
  14. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Another update:

    Apparently none of the relays mentioned in the previous post are available any more. I tried ordering through 3 separate parts retailers that claim to have them in stock, only to receive an email within a day indicating that the "part you have requested is discontinued and no longer available".

    So, how about a universal relay? A little bit of searching the autoparts store websites just confused me a bit as its hard to discern what voltage/amperage relay I need for the headlights. Furthermore, after looking at this site detailing how 4 bulb headlights work, I'm confused as to why there's only one headlight relay. Shouldn't there be two?
     
  15. rabbit.arrow

    rabbit.arrow Member

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    I would check the dealership. That's where I got mine (for a '77 under the kick panel) but they said it was the last one in the country (and in a different state). If you think $34 bucks was expensive...the dealership ain't cheap, but the OEM relays are waaay better. Also you might check ebay...

    I would also suggest, like standardbyker88, that you check and clean the switch.
     
  16. Barnacles

    Barnacles Enthusiast

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    Taking your (and standardbyker88) advice, I checked the switch on the steering column last night. From what I can see the contacts are fine. I used an alcohol soaked cloth and some 600 grit sandpaper to "refresh" the contacts, but the problem remains the same: the "low-beams" setting is just the outer two lamps, the "hi-beams" setting equals no headlights on at all!

    Which brings me to the relay under the hood, above the passenger wheel well, as pictured by MegatherioN, above. I had originally thought this relay was the culprit of my hi-beams problem based on replies to this thread. I did some testing with the relay last night and it is functional, but the function does not appear to be with the hi-beams. Disconnecting that relay prevents the low-beams from coming on. Alas, it is a headlight relay, but only for the low-beam filaments in the outer bulbs. It is also only a three-pin relay, further supporting the idea that it has nothing to do with the hi-beams. SO, all of this is leading me to believe that there is either another relay or something else is going on that no one has suggested here.

    Despite this type of diagram making sense for a four-lamp, two-beam setup:
    [​IMG]

    I do not think that is what we have in our '76 trucks. The wiring diagram for our 76 pickups does not show an additional relay for the hi-beams:
    [​IMG]

    So, I'm all ears for your ideas as to what might be malfunctioning to allow my normal low-beams to work, and then none of them work when switched to the hi-beams setting!!! :shrug::brickknock:

    On another note, If someone could tell me how to get the steering wheel off, that would be great. I tried to pry the center cap of the steering wheel off with a flat head screwdriver, but only ended up scaring the whole area up and not even getting it off. I assume the screws holding the wheel to the column are under there?
     
  17. jetas

    jetas Grand Toyotaholic

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    There mighy be a couple screws holding the middle pad of the wheel on. Then there should be one nut holding the wheel on to the column, but your guna need a puller for that
     
  18. rabbit.arrow

    rabbit.arrow Member

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    Screws on the back off wheel to remove the cover.
     
  19. davg63

    davg63 Newbie

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    I would like to thank MegatherioN for the picture of his 76 headlight relay. After 2 months off and on trying to figure out where that little thing is and boom found it on the smog bracket that mounted where he said. I finally got head lights yah!!!!!!
     

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