off topic no high beams battery dying

[fordman]

my wifes subaru lost high beams. and the high beam switch is in the turn signal switch on the column. ever since she lost high beams the battery has been dyign. i took it out and charged it over nihgt. it has a full 12 volts at 4:30 this morning. i put it back in the car. at 8:30 i tried to start the car and everythgin was dead no lights no buzzer no nothing. so i spent the entire day testing the charging system. it passed. i also put the new brushes i had into the alternator. i didnt put in there in december. anyway i pulled the battery out and put another battery in. and it drained that battery in about 2 hours. so i went to charging the old one again. it wouldnt charge for some reason. i poped off the tops and it was low on acid mix. so i added straight acid to it. and it began to charge. the acid was over the plates barely. i guess i tneeded more than just over the plates. or the new acid helped the battery condition for now. so all day and nothing was working right. i put the charged battery in the car and ran a light between the neg battery cable and the pot. and it lit up with everything turned off. so i had a short someplace. so i start thinking to myself where could there be a short. then my wife says remember the high beams stopped working about the same time this started happening. so i start unplugging plugs under the column to get the short to go away. soem of those plugs just wouldn't come apart. so i looke din the owners manual and found the light switch fuse. i pulle dthat fuse and the short went away. but i still have head lights. but no high beams. but i also lost tail lights when i did that. i put the fuse back in and tested it again. then the tail lights stayed on when we turned off the headlight switch. so right now i have pulled that light switch fuse again. the tail lights have gone off and everythign works except the tail lights. all o fthis leads me to think the turn signal switch combo headlight switch is bad. does that sound right to anyone? it couldnt be anything else that i can think of. right now the car is running hopefully charging the battery. as a reminder i put new diodes in the alternator in december. when the battery wouldnt stay charged. i had thought the diodes were bad again when this first started happening. but the car would stay running when pushing the brake pedal. so it couldnt be a bad alternator again. the parts store said the alternator was charging. well 3 out of 4 said that. the 4th one said the didoes were bad. i had the alternator tested on the car and off the car with the same results.

[fordman]

wait a minute. this lighting switch. is what is also called a position switch. this position switch is on top of the steering column. it isn't a hazard switch. that is on the dash. this position switch operates no matter where the key is turned. on or off. when i go tin the car and drove it to oriellys to have the system checked once more . this switch was in th eon position. the only light that works on the car for this switch is a side marker light on the passenger side of the car. turning off the switch or pulling that fuse kills that light. but i still have no high beams. this isn't over yet. i am not sure what is draining the battery for sure yet. the owners manual i have is from a 95. it says the switch operates back wards from what it actually operates. my car is a 92. i do wonder if this position switch has been on this whole time. but why would the tail lights go off last night and on earlier for no reason. was the switch tripped by accident. reaching my hand over the column to reach the key. if you notice this may just eb more of a thread so that i can think this out easier. and can probably be deleted in a few days when this is solved.

[70_F100]

Any chance the high beams are controlled by a relay? (Probably)

[fordman]

i dont know. i am going to go tot the library and look up the wiring diagrams of the car. i went out and restested everything after dinner. i made sure this tiem the position light switch was off. and i had noe draw downs in the system. the ligth bulb would only light up when i turned them on. that switch turns on both frotn fender marker lights and all the tail lights. it doesnt turn on any front lights at all. i then decided to put the battery out of one of my trucks in it. we jumped it and it started. i then let it idle to charge and add what was left of the battery acid to that battery. which really wasnt enough. we then went to the gas station and left it running. when we got back we shut it off and waited a second. and then restarte it. it started right up. maybe this was just a battery problem. or it didnt have tiemm to draw down the battery if that is what has been happening.

anyway i feel i put some knowledge to work today. stuff that i was told how to do but never did it. such as checkign for a short with a test light through the battery cables. and i got to take apart the alternator again. which really is very easy. and they are simple pieces of machinery. if the battery replacemnt works then i wasted a whole day. but i didnt buy a bunch of parts that i didnt need either. i followed the true meaning of being a mechanic. testing instead of guessing and replacing part after part after part. until i gave up and soemone else put a fuse in it for me. well you know what i mean. well enough of the bullsheep. we will see come morning if i made the right diaganosis.

[fordman]

update. i think it was the battery. when i changed the battery last night for another . i charged the old battery. it had 11 1/2 volts when i put it in the gravel floor of the garage last night. night it tests out at 9 volts. however i had more problems with the car today. the alt combo power steering belt came off going down the road this morning. so i put another belt on it. and it came off again coming home. i may have had the belt adjusted too tightly. because the power steering pump shaft inside the pump moves in and out of the pump so the pump goes forward and backward. and may have made the belt jump off of the pulleys. i got the car within 10 miles of home and it died because the battery ran out of power to run the electric fuel pump. i went to town and got a shorter belt to run the alternator only and not the power steering pump. and the belt didn't come off. although i think the front pulley may now be warped too. you can see it kind of wobbling. not as bad as it was wobbling with the right belt on there. i could have sworn it had a bent crankshaft it was wobbling so badly. this took up my entire day. i didnt get to work on my 67 again.