RE: no high beam

[Hirsch <Catenary@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ted Williams wrote:
> I recently had my turn signal unit smoke out on me (way cool
> man!), while driving in the Santa Cruz Mountains...Bear Creek
> Road actually. What fun, to be coming around a corner, turning
> on your brights, and boom...no lights at all...thank goodness
> the turn signals still worked. I almost hit a mountain. My point,
> oh yeah, I ended up calling talking to someone about this and
> they said that there was a recall on the Milano, to have a
> relay put in. I guess one has the relay, and one doesn't. I
> don't remember if it was high or low. My car was never fixed.
> Where would I put a relay in the line? Ted
 =

>> I check the diagram and indeed there's no relay for headlights
>> even on the milano! What a surprise

There was an article about the relay installation written by Herb
Bridge published in the Alfa Owners of New England newsletter
way back in 1990. The article is reprinted below.

Rich
- -------
A Note On Milano Lights
by Herb Bridge
(from Velocissima, Alfa Owners of New England, 1-90)

Early versions of the Milano used headlamp circuits similar to
those previously used on the Alfetta and GTV6 cars. In this design
lights are supplied with battery power directly through the
headlamp switch on the steering column. No relays are used and all
the current goes through the switch. It is not surprising that this
system is prone to trouble. As the switch gets older the contacts
oxidize and get dirty; the contact resistance goes up; the switch
gets hot; the plastic body melts and the switch fails. Moreover
any additional current through the switch caused say by higher
wattage bulbs or by the addition of driving lights leads to early
failure of the switch. Thus the installation of relays on any of
these cars is a worthwhile precaution.

Alfa must have finally seen the error of its ways because late
model Milanos came through with relays in both the low and high
beam circuits. These relays are mounted just above the fuse box
and can be reached by pulling out the small glove box on the
driver's side. The main purpose of this note concerns the recall
that Alfa sent out covering modification of the switch circuitry
for early production Milanos. Under this recall a relay was
installed only in the low beam circuit; the high beam was left
unchanged. It is hard to understand why Alfa did this since the
low beam is 45 watts per light and the high beam is 65. Apparently
to save a few bucks they fixed less than half the problem.

The recall was carried out on my car sometime ago and after I
understood what had and had not been done, I put relay in the
high beam circuit and forgot about it - until a couple of months
ago. Then, coming back from Fred's new place in Maine, all the
lights went out. Fortunately jiggling the switch got them on again
and back to a warm garage where the problem could be looked at in
comfort. Looking at the circuit, the switch is fed +12 volts via
a single 2.5mm red wire and the switch distributes this to all
the lights. So, since all the lights went out at once, it seemed
that the feed wire had to be intermittent. One of the modifications
which is supposed to be carried out in the recall is to replace
the connector on the end of the red feed wire with a new heavy
duty model so it seemed probable that the trouble might be in this
area. To get at the switch the top and bottom covers must be
removed from the steering column (6.3mm Allen-head screws) and
then if more room is needed the steering wheel can come off. After
exposing the switch the source of the troubles was evident. The
connector to the +12 feed wire had been improperly crimped and
was actually loose on the wire; after cleaning up the wire and
connector it was recrimped as well as possible and then soldered.
After putting things back together there have been no further
problems. I recommend that anyone who has had this recall carried
out install an additional relay in the high beam circuit.

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