I'm starting to drive my p-12 around a little more at night and I noticed that my dimmer switch and headlight switch do become warm and hot to the touch. There is a 1/2 volt drop in my system ( 5 1/2 volts at the lights). My headlights seem nice and bright. Is it normal to get a little heat in these areas, I hate to tear a good switch apart and clean the contacts and not get the switch back together. I know that these switches were made before they had silver and gold contacts. So what is normal?
power your head lights through relays..save your original components from heat failure..if experiencing voltage drops, eventually they will be pulling way more current than they can safely handle..
No need to tear the dimmer switch apart, just get a new one: NAPA part number ECH DS108 http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Result.aspx?Ntt%3dECH%2bDS108%26Ntk%3dKeyword%26Nty%3d1%26Dn%3d0%26D%3dECH%2bDS108%26Dk%3d1%26Dp%3d3%26N%3d0
Not sure what your head light switch is like, but mine failed to respond to spraying TV tuner contact cleaner into it (still available last I checked) and despite my best efforts at opening it up and mechanically cleaning it still had measurable resistance. I found a generic headlight switch at the local auto supply that I could re-thread the pull rod on to match my original knob.
If spraying it with contact cleaner while switching it on and off does not help and you can't get a suitable modern generic match, the I concur with the suggestion of simply using the old switch as the control for headlight relays.
Also assure you headlamps are grounded to a clean and tight grounding spot. A lot of the resistance could be after the lamp.
The other thing to check is the terminal block where the wires split and go to the opposite sides of the car. Corrosion there will aslo add resistance to the circuit. For general electrical system integrity, make sure you have a ground strap from the cars body to the engine. Firewall to bell housing bolt is a good place or one of the starter bolts if they are handier to get to.
This also asumes your main battery cables are correct size for proper 6 V operatioin 1 gauge is minimum.
Thanks for the information. By the responce I assume that heat is not normal at these switches. Thanks again.