Good morning brickbrains,

Cold weather has kept 81 244 down till spring, replacement ride is a non-Volvo from '91.

This Asian car has two sealed beam USA type standard setup, "pop-up" type like on other low "sporty" cars. NOT four separate units like on 81 and 83 240s.

One beam per side means high/low together, like Volvos of yesteryear, pre 1980 or so, 3 (three) prong bulb. One terminal for low, one for high, third for ground, right? I swear the three prong layout/connector is identical to what I would have seen on a '72 Volvo.

Low beam (high still ok) is out on left side, so I buy new Sylvania 6054H ("made in USA") as correct replacement, assuming this will make things right. This beam is an oddball size, not round but rectangular, 5 X 7" or so, wouldn't go into an '81 or '83 240. Or a 140 or VW Beetle....

Plug in/on the 3 prong connector even using a little dielectric grease on new bulb terminals as "safety" measure. Beam has a metal retainer w/ four screws to hold the thing into its retaining bucket, nothing strange.

I'm doing this while temp is dropping from 40 f to 10f or so, high winds...

W/newly installed beam, same prob, no LOW.

Am I missing something? The beam I pulled out showed no continuity cross one of the prongs, "proving" to me that the low was bad and I did right to replace the whole unit. Esp. as I have an old, but never burned, incandescent bulb w/ high/low, it DOES show continuity across all three terminals.

Checked as many relevant fuses as possible, all other lights on car are ok.

I conclude the following:

1)The new unit is a dud, i.e. defective on low (it does work on high).

OR

2)The connector to the bulb or the low beam wire to the connector is the prob.


I do have knowledge and tools to test but it's cold out and just disconnecting the batt., finding fuseboxes, dealing w/ cramped wiring access on this car is a struggle.

Sorry to go off topic, but it's for a good cause, we gotta peddle this junkbox and get rolling in
Volvo again.

Thanks for listening--

Frank in OHIO

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83 245, 81 244

Well, Frankly, you influenced me to splurge for two headlamps after one of mine quit this evening. Had a hard time finding them too. They're even older than yours; the round 4-headlamp system 5006 type. I'll let you know if either is a dud. Snowing too hard to do it now.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Funny you mentioning getting a dud sealed beam. In a conversation I had Saturday with a friend we were discussing someone who was not so tolerant of an out-of-box failure of I forget what when he used that very experience as an example,"Didn't you ever buy a new headlamp that wouldn't work?" Actually, I hadn't, but obviously he had.

Does seem unlikely given how long they last in something like a semi-tractor.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

frank, i know it's cold, but you've got to swap sides.

take the new bulb and put it the side that works 100%. if the new bulb works 100% then you've got a wiring problem on the "bad" side.