hey guys,
i need your help really quick, my roommate, pheonix, is stuck in traffic and needs to hot-wire his headlights for his 79 elky. he has sent me on your beloved site to get help. hes gonna make a stop at Kragen, what do i need to tell him? where does he ground? whatever help you guys can offer would really help us out. thanks guys.

The yellow wire out of the headlight switch feeds the dimmer on the column. If the yellow is jumped to +12 volts he should get headlights. The headlights are grounded with a black wire from the connector.

The headlights have their own self resetting circut breaker. If overheated it will trip and has too cool before closing. If the overload condition remains the light will blink on and off.

thanks for the reply, now he needs to know if everything in the dash has shorted out, is the yellow wire that comes out of the headlight switch still the best option?

How can I tell if everything in the dash has shorted out? Is anything else not working?

If he applies power to the yellow wire from the switch and the lights don't come on then the problem is "down stream" from there. You can also turn the switch on and check for voltage on the yellow wire. Power (red wire) to the switch is ALWAYS HOT.

Could be an overloaded breaker. Could be a bad dimmer switch. Could be a bad ground at the headlights (but no likely that all would be out at once).

I just can't tell from where I am sitting what the problem is. Sorry. :oops: