Amazon: Anybody got a stalk dipswitch?

[Mike_Brace]

Originally Posted by 940_Turbo

I have it written down somewhere. As you say it is an easy mod. I can't remember whether I did it for V44 vereniging or owners club. Lots of people have done it though, certainly not my "invention". If anyone is interested I'll have a hunt for my write up, unless you fancy doing one?

It was one of those things I did when faced with a problem and seemed an easy solution. As you say many have done it. If you could find your write up that would be great as I'm sure this will be useful. If not I will have to try to get my brain functioning and look back on what I did.

Mike

[940_Turbo]

Right, I've lobbed a quick version together. I don't have a car to hand to take photos of.

Volvo 240 head light flasher conversion.

You need to source is the rectangular latching relay that lives on the inner wing of a 240. It switches the headlights from dipped to main beam and also allows your headlight flashers to function.

The way I’m doing this is completely reversible. No cutting of the loom at all. I’ll also point out alternative methods of doing it. I assume a basic knowledge of electrics. This is tried and tested, but as ever any work you chose to do to your car is your responsibility and yours alone. When in doubt ask someone for help or pay someone!

On your LH inner wing you’ll see the headlight flasher relay. It is the one that clicks when you flash the stalk. Some markets lack the relay, but the wiring is in the loom.

Once you’ve identified the old relay disconnect the battery, unscrew the relay and have a look at the wires on it. You will have;

1) A pair of red wires, one is the main beam feed to the headlights, the other is the feed to the blue tell tale. Connect these to terminal 56a on your 240 relay

2) A single black. It is a live from the fuse box. You need an additional loop of wire a piggy back connector and a spade connector. Connect the black to terminal 15 on the 240 relay and with the additional loop to terminal 81a

3) A grey wire. This goes to the flasher switch and completes the circuit to trip the relay. Connect it to terminal 31b on the 240 relay.

Now move on to the dip switch on the floor. Remove the two screws (can be amusing) and you’ll see you have the following wires.

1) Pair of reds, one comes from the relay on the inner wing the other goes to the blue tell tale. Connect them together (solder and shrink tubing is my preferred method) and insulate them. Your blue tell tale will now work.

2) Yellow. This is the feed from the light switch. You either need to extend it and connect it to terminal 56 on the 240 relay or pull it off at the light switch also and run a new wire direct from the light switch to terminal 56. Your choice. I tend to go direct from the light switch. On the light switch there is only one yellow, connected to terminal 56. Don’t pick on the white by mistake! The colours do fade.

3) Grey, this is the dipped beam feed. There are 3 ways of doing this. Extend it and run it to terminal 56b on the relay. Or insulate it, pull the other end out of the multi plug on the inner wing and run a wire direct from 56b on the relay to the multi plug, or my least favourite option cut the loom open under the relay and fish it out.

Job done!

[Alf ista]

Excellent write up! Thanks a million. I think this is worth putting in the "PV, 120, 1800 Articles" section, otherwise it will get lost over time.

[940_Turbo]

Originally Posted by Alf ista

Excellent write up! Thanks a million. I think this is worth putting in the "PV, 120, 1800 Articles" section, otherwise it will get lost over time.

I don't know; that articles section is kind of dead, and being locked no one can add to it or improve on existing knowledge. I don't really like it as it is.

[Derek UK]

I might well be proving electrically dim here, a suitable word for this thread, but in my earlier post I said that you lose the flasher option if you change to the 240 relay. In your instructions Peter, you say that you still keep the flasher. The flasher relay is removed after the wires get swapped over. The pull back action of the stalk now flip flops the relay giving main or dip so does it give power to the lights when they are switched off to give a flash to whatever side of the circuit it starts out at or finishes on, i.e. main or dip? When the lights are on and you were on dip, the old flasher relay would give you the option to give a quick flash to someone without coming off dip beam, which was sometimes usful to "advise" an oncoming car that he was still on main beam and would he kindly dip them please. Also useful around winding lanes when you can hold the mains on to give more light while actually being on dip. Basically, how does the stalk now flash or hold main beam while flip flopping the power between the main and dip circuits?

As an aside, my old B16 Amazon, way back in the 60's had the flasher wired into the indicator circuit and if you held it on for more than a couple seconds it went into repeat flash mode. Useful for rudely racing down the outside lane on the motorway. As far as I know this was a standard part of the wiring circuit.

[Ron Kwas]

Derek;

Peter has it correct...in addition to the seesaw contact of the latching relay which switch between Main and dipped Beam, there is an additional momentary contact which is closed (only) while the coil is energized, which powers up the main beam...and this is irrespective of if the lights are ON or not, because it it powered by Battery Power...so even if the (momentary) Headlights Signaling Relay was in place, it should be removed when performing this upgrade, the function is not lost, because the Latching Relay will perform it once installed.


Bistable (Hella) relay with "see-saw" mechanism and contacts at left, momentary contact at right.

Cheers

[Derek UK]

OK, fine, I have my daytime flasher back. However, and I don't want to drag this out too much, if you read through the rest of my post it's my understanding that you can't main beam flash someone when dipped without the relay also going to main which means you're just going on to main and you'll have to pull again to go back to dip. You'll also not be able to do what I deem useful and have main and dip on at the same time, as you can with the "old" circuit. Win some, lose some I guess.

[Ron Kwas]

Derek;

I'm not certain about this, but there could be a technical reason for not allowing both elements to be powered at the same time...it might simply result in too high a heat concentration in the lamp...

Cheers

[940_Turbo]

Originally Posted by Derek UK

OK, fine, I have my daytime flasher back. However, and I don't want to drag this out too much, if you read through the rest of my post it's my understanding that you can't main beam flash someone when dipped without the relay also going to main which means you're just going on to main and you'll have to pull again to go back to dip. You'll also not be able to do what I deem useful and have main and dip on at the same time, as you can with the "old" circuit. Win some, lose some I guess.

It will always cycle from dipped to main and back again on each "flash" on the stalk, regardless of whether the headlights are on or off. And it'll flash the headlights when doing so. In that respect it is no different from the factory setup on a 240.

In effect, if you flash your headlamps at someone when the headlights are on, you must flash twice so the headlights go back to where they were. I've never found it inconvenient, it just got to be habit. All 140, 160, 240 are like that with the factory wiring. There is no way to alter that without fitting a switch that functions differently from the original.

[Derek UK]

Thanks Ron and Peter for confirming my thoughts re the circuit. Ron, yes I'm sure that the bulb would overheat if both filaments were left on, burning together, for very long.