Da Sooby Newbie say Hi.

[Jon]

Good morning all,

I bought my first Sooby on Tuesday morning. It's an 84 GL wagon. Lots of rust, as it grew up in Colorado, but overall it's in pretty good shape. The shifter needs new bushings badly..I have to use "the Force" to find reverse. My mechanic friend has them in his hot little hand already. They came with the car. The rear shocks are essentialy non-existant. They should be fixed this weekend. I had to replace both front turn signal lamps, both front parking lamps and both front side marker lamps. The only remaing bugaboo is the left tail light. It doesn't work, but the brake light portion of the bulb does. New bulbs haven't helped. Swapping the tail lights right for left doesn't help. I have continuity from the bulb socket to the plug. This one is going to be a pain in the youknowwhat.

Are there supposed to be lights behind the heat/air controls? Mine are completely dark. If so, how the heck do you get in there? Also, how does the dome light housing come off to get the dead bugs out of it? I've been hesitant to yank on it too much as the switch barely works. I had to "pursuade" it.

 

Anyway, hello and thanks.

 

Jon

[Myxalplyx]

Hi Jon! *waves* Welcome to the board.

[Jon]

Hi Jon! *waves* Welcome to the board.

 

Thanks Myxalplyx. It's good to be here.

[northguy]

Jon, welcome to the board. As to the taillight problem, check the socket for corrosion, and check the ground. The lights in the dash are a major "PITA" to change as it requires a bunch of removal and replacement.

[Jon]

Thanks Northguy. Thankfully, all of the other dash lights work fine. It's only the heater/ac controls that are dark.

I WD-40'ed the connector and plugged and un-plugged it several times. I think the ground is probably good as the brake light, which shares that bulb, works OK.

 

Jon

[elcaminokurt]

To get at the lights behind the heater controls, you need to take the radio console off. I think there are four screws that hold it on, two on each side. Then, you need to remove the aluminum plate that the first four screws thread into. After that, you need to slide the knobs off the heater levers, and pull the dials straight out. Under the dials are nuts that need to be taken off. After those are off, I think your in! I belive there are 2 #194 bulbs in there. Hope this helps! Kurt

[Jon]

Thanks, Kurt. Actually, I just fixed 'em. I didn't have to mess with the radio at all. I just pulled the fan and temp. knobs off, took off the nuts around their shafts and pried that panel out. It took 2 #74 bulbs from my friendly neighborhood Auto Zone. I now have heater lights! Cool ~

[elcaminokurt]

Thanks, Kurt. Actually, I just fixed 'em. I didn't have to mess with the radio at all. I just pulled the fan and temp. knobs off, took off the nuts around their shafts and pried that panel out. It took 2 #74 bulbs from my friendly neighborhood Auto Zone. I now have heater lights! Cool ~

Well, I suppose if you wanted to do it the easy way! What you actually just told me is that I made my project last weekend much harder than it had to be! Oh well, its always a learning experience!

Kurt

[Jon]

Well, I suppose if you wanted to do it the easy way! What you actually just told me is that I made my project last weekend much harder than it had to be! Oh well, its always a learning experience!

Kurt

 

Well, I just didn't know any better! That panel came out kind of hard and I was a little concerned, but it had probably not been out since the car was new. The top wanted to come out first, then a little pry and lift and it was out.

I work on a military installation which has an auto craft shop. I dropped the car off there this afternoon on the way to work to have the front tires balanced. Now, not only do I have heater lights, but the shake at highway speed is all but gone. Progress is wonderful. However, the mechanic who balanced the tires told me that I need to replace my front brake pads soon...like next week! Another project for my list. Work work work!

 

Jon

[sportsterbrat]

Welcome!!!!!!!

[TomRhere]

Welcome to the Board!

 

On your tail-light problem. Have you checked for voltage at the harness connector for that side?

 

Are both Brake-lights "on" with the same brightness, or is the affected side some what dimmer? If it's dimmer, could be bad ground.

 

Try this: Prop something against brake pedal so brake-lights are "on", check for brightness of both being equal. Now, turn "on" the tail-lights. Does the affected sides brake-light get dimmer, or go "out"? If so, you have a bad ground.

 

Ever see a vehicle with one tail-light "on", and the brake-light on the otherside "on", which goes "out" when they hit the brakes? Or, no light on oneside, but tail-light comes "on" when they hit the brakes? Bad ground(s) will do that. One circuit is using the other circuit for its ground, vehicles do wierd stuff like that, makes it fun to work on them.