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79 242GT now has turbo power, but a headlight puzzler

The transplant of the entire B21FT drivetrain, suspension and LSD rear from the '83 flat nose to the GT is now almost complete. With all new bushings, stainless brake lines and various other upgrades, it is pretty sweet. The job required a total transplant of the body wiring harness, so it has the wiring of an 83 with the R sport gauges and 79 headlights (square H4s) and tail lights. One thing has me stumped, no power to the low beam headlights. It is acting like a bad small headlight relay, except there does not appear to be a 2nd headlight relay in either the 79 harness nor in the 83. There is no voltage at the low beams. Headlight switch, bulb relay, turn stalk, high beam relay have all been checked. It has me stumped. Any of the Bricksters have the key to what I overlooked?








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    Art is the best

    You made it easy, thanks Art!








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      Bob is the best

      It isn't often I get an opportunity to help you -- usually it is the other way around. Thanks for the kind words.

      Being Saturday and all, I thought I'd take the time to scan those GT headlight wiring diagrams. While doing that, I noticed the line drawings Volvo uses to show part locations have quad rectangular, quad round, dual round, and your H4-lit lamps, or so it seems. Here are the GT headlight diagram links, and also one page with the Euro-style shown, although it is for the alternator.

      GT headlight wiring 1

      GT headlight wiring 2





      --
      Art Benstein near Baltimore

      "Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza." - Dave Barry








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        Bob is the best

        Art you inspired me to post the pic, I hope it works. You can see two remarkable things: 1) the square H4s and 2) it was taken on garbage day in my neighborhood. The wiring problem came from the mods made to the 83 when installing the OEM fog kit. A couple of wires got rerouted and that was not noticed when the harness went into the GT where we used the GT fog system.









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          Bob is not that great at posting pics









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            79 GT

            Wow. I see a few things.

            It sinks in now what you said about being rare and square. There are not any drawings in the book to show this.

            Pristine concrete driveways and old Volvos don't mix without some meticulous maintenance. Nice work!

            Snow covers in Florida must be air scoops for the floor vents?

            The GT striping looks new yet, even on the air dam! If any 242's ever get deemed collectible, I'd guess you own both of them.
            --
            Art Benstein near Baltimore

            Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.








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              79 GT

              Snow cover is more of a leaf exclusion device. My GT is poor relation to Roger Patricio's beautiful restoration and modification. He is out of Coral Springs and he won best RWD Volvo at the state show yesterday. It is the first time I have ever seen a 240 get respect at a show.








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    79 242GT now has turbo power, but a headlight puzzler 200 1979

    Hi Bob,

    Confused, I was, when you said it has '79 headlights - square H4s. My '79 has round ones and the upscale models that year, I thought, had quad rectangular sealed beams in the US. Didn't the GT have 7" rounds? Guess you have an upgrade to e-codes?

    But either way, the 79 wiring is the same as the wiring in my 83 flat nose with quad rectangular headlights, and it is kinda anti-intuitive because of the bulb-out sensor. It follows from the battery junction box on a red wire to 30 on the headlight switch, and from there, a yellow wire back out to the hi-lo relay. You can verify that part of it if the lights remain on when you put the high beams on. Something is wrong there if all you get is flash-to-pass, which has a separate path.

    From the hi-lo relay it goes back into the cabin on a thick gray wire to the bulb-out sensor. From there, separate blue wires feed each low beam filament (on your H4s) through a connector just behind each headlight bucket.

    That should help if you have a test light to go sleuthing with.
    --
    Art Benstein near Baltimore

    "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day." -Frank Sinatra








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      79 242GT now has turbo power, but a headlight puzzler 200 1979

      Art- Thanks so much, I will trace it. Yes the lights are the rare square H4s that were used briefly in Europe and more so in Australia as I recall. A single H4 light per side.







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