1950 Special Deluxe

[Mario]

I just purchased a 1950 Special Deluxe and have a lot of small issues I would like assistance in addressing. If anyone has a good resource they can point me to so I am not posting a million questions that would be helpful. Until then I'd like to use this thread to work through the issues if that is okay. First my headlights. The fog lights and tail lights work in the second position. When I go to the third position the headlights go off. Also I cannot get my hood to latch.

[dpollo]

I would recommend The Plymouth Owners' Club.   Excellent publication.

[knuckleharley]

24 minutes ago, Mario said:

I just purchased a 1950 Special Deluxe and have a lot of small issues I would like assistance in addressing. If anyone has a good resource they can point me to so I am not posting a million questions that would be helpful. Until then I'd like to use this thread to work through the issues if that is okay. First my headlights. The fog lights and tail lights work in the second position. When I go to the third position the headlights go off. Also I cannot get my hood to latch.

Disconnect your battery and then take your headlight switch out after making all the wires so you know which wire goes where,and then clean all the contacts on the wires and on the headlight switch. Hook the wires back up again,re-connect your battery,and pull out the knob and see what happens. If  you still don't have any headlights use a test light to make sure you have power going to the headlights from the pole on the switch that goes to the headlights. If you have fire there,see if you have power at the headlight plugs. If you don't,you need to fix a short or run new  headlight wires.  If you don't have any power going from the headlight switch to the headlights,replace the switch.

For a back up test you can run a jumper from a hot wire going to the headlight switch and then directly to the wires going to the headlight. If there are still no headlights,you may need to rewire the headlight wires as well as buy a new switch.

 

Do NOT forget to check your dimmer switch in the floor. Lots of times that is the culprit because water and mud gets splashed up on the connections and they need to be cleaned. In FACT,checking high beam and low beam with your headlight switch knob pulled all the way out should be your first test. You might have high beams and no low beams,or low beams and no high beams. That would be a good first clue you need to check and clean all the connections going to the dimmer switch.

 

BTW,I can't remember if this is true of the early 50's Mopar headlight switches or not,but it was pretty common back then to have a fuse plugged into the headlight switch. Checking that fuse and cleaning the contacts while you are messing with it is always a worthwhile thing to do,but it's obviously not the problem because you have taillights.

[Branded]

Headlights also has a circuit breaker tha t may have failed.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Branded

[MackTheFinger]

Hood latch on my 1950 Coronet has a little spring to pull the latch to the closed position.. Maybe that spring is broken on yours..

[Branded]

If the latch is cable operated make sure to push the cable all the way back in. Cable could be seized and open need of lubricant 

[Mortimer452]

Congrats on the purchase, plenty of help available here.  And also, we need pics!