No Main Beam!

[petefarrell360]

Right, this is really a bit of a pointer to anyone with problems with the main beam stalk. On my low mileage 340, the combined indicator and main beam stalk felt loose and floppy as though it had the common 300 problem, of the weak and poorly designed plastic bracket lugs breaking off around the holes where it is very thin plastic. This then means there is nothing to hold the stalk in place and it is unusable.

As this got worse, the main beam dip function on the stalk became intermittent. It got to the point of being very unreliable and I was worried I might be in the situation of not being able to dip the lights from main beam when something was coming. Before I had chance to check the problem or luckily be faced with that issue of not being able to dim them, it stopped working all together.

I finally got a chance to look at it the other day, I couldn't believe the stalk was worn out, as the car hadn't covered many miles, seriously below average. It could have dirty contacts though, so armed with a spare I set about sorting it out, stupidly in the dark, but I had no choice, I was fed up with driving with headlights only! Now to make matters worse and to make access to it a PITA, the disabled hand controls fitted to the car bolt to the steering column for support. The cover that goes below the stalks had been cut and slotted on before the frame and links were all bolted on. So, without removing all of it, the cover wasn't coming off. The controls are welded to the accelerator, which I will in time replace, but I can't take parts off, as the rods will be floating about. So, I had to try and see what was wrong with the cover pretty much still in place! Not easy.

As I wriggled the cover about trying to peer in, a screw fell out. It was from the bottom of the indicator/main beam stalk mount onto the plastic bracket! As that had gone the top one fell out as well. The two screws had worked loose and finally come out, giving the same problem as the broken bracket. The reason the main beam wasn't working is that the earth wire attaches to the unit through a ring terminal and the bottom screw, and as this had falled out the wire was floating about.

After about an hour of very patient fiddling around I've managed to refit both screws back in, which is certainly not an easy task with the cover removed, as the bottom ledge of the dash under the speedo instruments covers access to the top screw, let along when you can't remove the cover panel!

Now that it's back on and well fixed, it is certainly the most rigid mounted stalk I've found on a 300, other than one I repaired after the standard broken plastic bracket problem, which I braced with some aluminium. This may mean that it's not all down to the plastic bracket being weak, as if the screws work loose, the movement then creates different stresses, and more force is required to operate the indicators and main beam, especially if the stalk starts to hit the edges of the holes of the cover, or the back of the steering wheel.

So, if your stalk feels a bit wobbly, I'd advise checking how tight the screws are and that the bracket hasn't snapped. If the screws are tight, you could save a lot of hassle of a broken bracket. As that requires the steering wheel to come off, remove a plastic retaining screw, so that the plastic bracket will slide off the steering column.

Sorry for the long rambling post........ hope it all helps someone.

Pete

[Essex1]

Funny you should post this Pete, my mainbeams quit working last week and i've been meaning to look at it. How should the action of the stalk feel? Should it click into place or is it supposed to be one touch on/one touch off? Am i right in assuming that there is no 'flashing' function too?? I'm not sure the mainbeams have ever felt right, so I'd like to know how they should work before i go scrap yard hunting for a new bit...

[petefarrell360]

It's a one touch one, once touch off, it doesn't actually click into a different position like some might. And to flash the lights with headlights on, you have do do on and off quickly, but with the headlights off in the day time the lights will flash, but if you don't flash them to effectively turn them off again, the setting will be remembered when you turn your headlights on and you might get mainbeam too if you did an odd number of touches on the stalk.

The stalk should feel rather rigid, not floppy and like it's going to come off, and when it's well mounted, the touch on and off for mainbeam is effortless. You may not actually need a new stalk. If like mine the earth wire has just come loose, then simnply reattaching everything works. I had a spare stalk ready to swap in. I was still sure the original would be ok, as it was very low mileage, and if it wasn't I'd have investigated why it had gone wrong!

Pete

[Essex1]

Started working again yesterday, must be a loose contact somewhere, will investigate as described! Thanks!