240 Headlights pissing me off

1981 262c d24t
All headlights are on in low beam position and high beam position
When stalk switch is used the brighter filaments do light in the dual filament bulbs and the brights indicator lights up brighter
The brights indicator stays on at all times with headlights on
Cluster lights get dimmer with headlights on and turn signals don't work

At first my headlights worked on pass side only and when you tried brights the low beam dual bulb went out and only pass side bright illuminated
I replaced all the bulbs and now it's doing this
Any ideas?
I've tried replacing bulbs ,step relay and bulb failure relay to no avail

Possible bad stalk switch?
Bad ground somewhere?

Try cleaning up the black ground wire body connection off each hi/lo bulb - without looking through the wiring diagrams, it sounds like a bulb isn't grounded correctly and instead finds a backwards path through the high-beams to the other side's ground connection.

bobxyz said:

Try cleaning up the black ground wire body connection off each hi/lo bulb - without looking through the wiring diagrams, it sounds like a bulb isn't grounded correctly and instead finds a backwards path through the high-beams to the other side's ground connection.

Click to expand...

I had a similar issue with one of my high beams constantly drawing and having a dim light when the regular beams where on. Turned out to be a corroded ground, I would look to this first.

Thanks! I'll get to cleaning

Well still pissing me off
Now I have even more wiring issues

Replaced and cleaned all iffy grounds
Still jacked up lights
Now the alt doesn't seem to be charging
And the cluster lights still dim when in driving light or headlight
Alt warning light came on so I'll have to check that out now too

...I don't have an older volvo (mine's 10 years newer), but isn't '81 one of the years with the degrading wiring harnesses?
If so, that would explain a lot of gremlins. Also, clean your fuses (yeah, that's the standard answer, but I didn't see it mentioned yet).

If you think your alternator's giving you issues, then I'd look long and hard at your wires, too.