Highbeam foot switch?

[McVibe]

Okay so I do a whole lot of backroad driving here in Va and I was wondering how one might go about installing a Highbeam switch on the floorboard like on the dead pedal. I've always liked the cars that had those and I think it is a great idea, especially because it seems whenever I confront another driver on the road it's always on the worlds sharpest turn and while turning and turning my highbeams with my hands, my left foot is uselessly sitting there.

[ZubenElGenubi]

It's been a mystery to me why the headlight footswitch was eliminated; makes perfect sense to me. With the highbeam switch on the column, you have to remove a hand from the steering wheel to switch or flash. I'm guessing that reduced wiring has something to do with the design change, but I really don't know.I would suggest two footswitches: one momentary (to "flash") and one on/off (to "switch"). The momentary would be disengaged is the other switch is on ("high beams"). A more practical solution would be a switch than can act like a momentary switch with low pressure, but be closed fully with higher pressure (like on some flashlights).

[vibe-04]

I think they were removed because of salt corroding the switch. We had an old Monte Carlo with a floor switch and my mother freaked when she turned on the high-beams but didn't know how (she was new to the car). She was yelling at me saying I did screwed up somthing. So we were stuck in the parking lot untill someone helped us out.Having a floor switch would be good but I have a clutch so the column is OK by me. I'm sure it is doable. Now a voice command, say "Blind On" and " Blind Off" would be great

[zionzr2]

Blind On ....Blind Off.....Blind On Blind Off...THE BLINDER!!!! now only 19.95 + S/HCall now Opperators are Standing by!!!

[ragingfish]

i've NEVER heard of a switch in the floor...nice idea though...

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »i've NEVER heard of a switch in the floor...nice idea though... kids these days, [shakes head]The foot switch dimmer is good in an auto tranny car, but sucks in a manual if you need to dim and shift at the same time. Ideal solution would be to come up with some way that could use both the steering column switch and the foot switch to toggle, so you could use either one depending on which was convenient. Most of the foot switches were just push action toggle switches, never had one that had a momentary flash option.Looks like high and low beams are controlled by passing a ground to either red wire pin 7 (low) or red/yellow wire pin 16 (high) of te DRL module.l If you put a dual pole dual throw foot toggle switch in line with those two wires, and wired it up as shown, when you pressed the foot switch it would toggle between high and low beams.Could be done, but for me it would just get too confusing

Attached files

[AZViking]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »i've NEVER heard of a switch in the floor...nice idea though...Even makes me feel old, and I'm only 26! What's taken me a while to get used to is the headlight switch IN the turn signal. All the cars I've had until the two you see in my sig had the pull-switch in the dash.

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »i've NEVER heard of a switch in the floor...nice idea though...man... where have you been? I remember these well. My dad's semi had it, our pickups had them. I think a few of my dad's old cars had them. I remember one of the cars, the floor was so rusted that the switch went through the floor haha. Good times.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »man... where have you been? I remember these well. My dad's semi had it, our pickups had them. I think a few of my dad's old cars had them. I remember one of the cars, the floor was so rusted that the switch went through the floor haha. Good times.Every car I owned had a traditional high beam switch...even my 89 bonneville...

[ColonelPanic]

1989? You have to go back farther than that to find one of these suckers. GM stopped using them in their cars somewhere by the late 70's for the most part, and the trucks sometime shortly thereafter. Not sure about any of the other guys and their quests to position the dimmer on the stalk...I remember once my grandpa took my uncle's '78 Caprice home, and I rode with him... He couldn't figure out how to dim the lights, he didn't know of a dimmer switch away from the floor. It was pretty funny - he kept kicking the floor and cussing at the thing. Never figured out how to do it until he got home and had my uncle show him, "just pull back here!" I didn't know any better either, hell up until that point all of our vehicles had floor mounted dimmer switches. Oh yeah, brings back memories. I found a throwback to what I remember seeing in the ol' muscle cars/etc. as a kid. Whaddya know, they still makethese to go on 'em! lmaoHere's a "retrofit."

Attached files

[mcgusto82]

are you guys serious??is it that difficult to reach with your finger tips and smack the lever fwd or pull back. i can do this without letting go of the steering wheel.

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »are you guys serious??is it that difficult to reach with your finger tips and smack the lever fwd or pull back. i can do this without letting go of the steering wheel.I agree. I'm glad there is no switch on the floor of my Vibe.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »are you guys serious??is it that difficult to reach with your finger tips and smack the lever fwd or pull back. i can do this without letting go of the steering wheel.Is it that difficult to avoid being so overly critical when an off the wall mod comes up for discussion? (Or when someone does not purchase a vehicle with a certain level of options? ) Hasn't your car witnessed some pretty bizarre modifications itself that many wouldn't ever want to do? Different people need or want different things, simple as that. I think McVibe stated some pretty good reasons for wanting something such as this. Sorry for sounding rude, but the above sounds a bit rude to me!And no, it really isn't that difficult to use the stalk... But that isn't the question here.

[joatmon]

edit -that was a guess based on the doc I have

Attached files 017hl.pdf (59.5 KB) 

[mcgusto82]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Is it that difficult to avoid being so overly critical when an off the wall mod comes up for discussion? (Or when someone does not purchase a vehicle with a certain level of options? ) Hasn't your car witnessed some pretty bizarre modifications itself that many wouldn't ever want to do? Different people need or want different things, simple as that. I think McVibe stated some pretty good reasons for wanting something such as this. Sorry for sounding rude, but the above sounds a bit rude to me!And no, it really isn't that difficult to use the stalk... But that isn't the question here. a foot switch that stick up about 1 inch is no mod. it's an obsticle to when it's time to vaccum. loli mean, there a reason why they dissapeared.

[ZubenElGenubi]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »i mean, there a reason why they dissapeared.And what is that reason? I'm just curious...

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by ZubenElGenubi »And what is that reason? I'm just curious...I'm going to take a guess and say it was to make it easier for disabled people to drive.Ragin... you're too darn young. I miss the control though, my 87 F150 had the foot control bright switch. But in these smaller cars, and my big feet - I'd never get to the switch in time. It would also be a lot easier to bump it on accident.

[McVibe]

So I'm probably going to attempt this install this week sometime so just to 'review' I guess I'll splice the red wire and the red/yellow wire and run some more wire down under my dead pedal and goto AutoZone or something and grab a dual pole dual throw button and see how it goes. Wish me luck!Oh yea I have a question also, do I get to these wires by removing the plastic shroud under the steering wheel? Also what Amperage switch do I need or does it really matter?

[binary]

switch amperage won't matter - you're only going to be activating a headlight relay with the switch - not actually sending direct current to the headlights.If you turn the steering wheel 90 degrees, you'll see a couple of screws you can access.

[McVibe]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVWI think we have a winner! Big and ugly but then again it is meant to stomp on, not be pretty.I can always paint it too

[vibe-04]

Looks good! and I'm liking the idea as a cheap fun project. I'd like to suggest some sort of grease to prevent mositure penetration but you probably don't get the salt like I do. In spring, my mats are white caked like the Salt Flats.Good luck and pics

[McVibe]

So I attempted to put the switch in today with little success. I found the red wire that controled the low beams and discovered that the red and yellow wire was not the high beams but rather the fog lights. I then proceeded to test every wire in the connector to the original high beam switch and none worked. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there was a pin that would control the high beams and what number and colour. There may be a pin combination? I dunno. Also I need a ground wire that activates with the ignition as connecting the switch to a regular ground would make the light on all of the time. So yea Help=Much appriciated.

[joatmon]

well, the doc I have says there are two red/yellow wires on the headlight control switch, but I haven't taken my car apart to verify.have separate pdfs for headlight and fog lightheadlight doc is at http://forums.genvibe.com/zerofile/9337/017hl.pdfbelow is foglight docI guess if you want to never use the turn signal switch for hi/low switching, you could just tap in to the signal coming out of the DRL module that controls the dimmer relay, ( http://forums.genvibe.com/zerofile/9337/017hl.pdf shows it as a white/red wire) and ground it when you want high beams. Maybe cut that wire and have a switch that grounds the relay side. I don't know how the DRL module controls various things at various stages, it you just ground that wire to the dimmer relay it could mean that you would only be able to turn off the high beams using the foot switch, even if you let the car automatically turn the headlighs on/off, puts more risk of leaving the headlights on accidentally and draining the battery. Sorry I can't say exactly what to do, I don't plan on doing the mod to my car. Maybe some of the wiring wizards will chime in with advice.

Attached files 018ffl.pdf (24.7 KB)