You're absolutely right. A poor connection will show 12 volts on a
voltmeter, because the voltmeter has high resistance and draws almost no
current. When you hook up a low resistance load like a headlight, it
tries to draw a lot of current through the high resistance of the poor
contact and drops most of the 12 volts right there.
It is a fact, though, that the Roadster fuse setup on the late model
cars is weird in that a blown or otherwise defective fuse in one of the
headlight circuits will cause that headlight to be dim, not go out
completely as you would expect. Checking the fuse is easy, about a 20
second evolution, and is what I would do first. If that isn't it, it's
time to start looking for missing grounds, loose connectors, frayed
wires, etc.
"Do the easy stuff first".
Barrie
'66 2000
San Diego
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Paul.Kort@marconimed.com wrote:
>
> I'm not an electrical engineer but my guess is amps! I had a headlight that
> refused to do more than glow. I switched bulbs, still just a glow. Meter
> showed 12 volts but on closer inspection I found that the PO had spliced the
> wires under the fender and one of the wires was down to one or two starnds.
> Enough I guess to show 12 volts on a meter but not enough to light a
>headlight!
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