This was mentioned in someone else's post but I can't seem to find it.

The headlight switch has multiple combinations and I have no idea why it's setup this way. Can anyone explain?

First of the all, the main beam position. On the 2CV, if the stalk is pulled back the main/high beams come on, along with the indicator light below the steering column and to make matters more confusing, It appears to be green instead of blue. With my Subaru, it's just the opposite so this is hard to get used to.

Rotate the switch forward one position and the park lights come on. Push the stalk forward and the dipped/low beams do not function but pull back on the stalk and the high/main beams come on.

Rotate the switch forward one more position and the park lights come on and pull the stalk back, main beams come on, push forward and dipped beams come on.

What is the purpose of the first method? Is there something screwy on my car or is it supposed to be like that?

Time to track down a copy of an Owner's Manual?


Light & horn switch by slcchassis, on Flickr

seems you wires are mixed up.
But this set-up dates from the old days in france. This switch was made for the traction to replace a more elaborete version with 2 stalks and a lot of posistion. In france they had to drive with parking lights inside the city. That explains de V on the switch Ville that means city. One turn on you have the high beams in the position R for Route that means road of coarse. And from both position you have to be able to the Code position that is normal lights.

Here's an online Owner's Manual to help you get to know the car

http://www.2cvsrus.com/restoration/user ... ge_e00.htm

Twist once- pull up for side lights, push down for dipped beam and side lights,
Twist twice- pull up for main beam and side lights, push down for dipped beam and sidelights.
Tell tale bulb should only work on main beam and side lights position.

Well when I got this car, I couldn't tell a difference between main and dipped beams. Someone mentioned that two of the wires could have been reversed in the light bar and sure enough that was the case. But which headlamp?

So my theory was if an indicator lamp came on (despite being green), this must be the main beams so I figured it was the wires going to the right hand side that was reversed.

The lens covers of the turn indicators and the main beam are both green. The emergency and rear fog light lenses are both red.

Are you saying that with the stalk pushed forward, the main beams should be on and when pulled back toward the driver, the dipped beams should be on? Just like on my Subaru and the positions on my 2CV are somehow reversed? Maybe at the column switch?

I can see not driving with the headlights on in the city. Like those yellow headlight bulbs they used to use. Seems like some countries required two different tone horns (city and country).

Lighting requirements between countries is always baffling. There seems to be no standard between country to country.

I saw some US spec cars while in Europe where the rear turn signal lights were retrofitted with amber turn signal lenses mounted on the bumpers like rear fog lights since allot of cars (mostly trucks) in the US have solid rear tail lights.

I know I've mentioned this in the past but I was baffled when I got my Trabant and could not understand why the front amber lights did not light up with the park lights. I did not know the park light bulbs were mounted in the headlamps!

Since my Trabant is 30 years old, it's exempt so I didn't have to do anything to make it DOT legal. just like I am not required to install seat belts to make the car legal, however if I am not wearing seat belts, then the police can write me a ticket.

I did move the park light wire from the headlamps to the front turn signal lights and used a dual filament socket and bulb in the housing. The only reason I did this was in case the police were to stop me and write me a ticket for inoperable equipment. Just the same as if I had a burned out headlight, brake light or tail light.

http://vid222.photobucket.com/albums/dd ... 806ddf.mp4

hi-beam has normally a blue lens on the dash. But someone must have swapped for a green...
Here it's in dutch but you can maybe throw the text in google translate. Look the 3rd item from below. (lichtschakelaar)
http://publicaties.2cv.nl/

No. It's the opposite: Stalk nearer to the driver is main beam. Stalk away from the driver is dipped beam.

Although German spec and some Scandinavian spec cars had a blue light on the dashboard for main beam, the French market cars and most (if not all) others didn't have a light at all. Same with the turn-signal/indicator light. Despite that, all later cars (early 80's onwards) had the relevant wiring for these two tell-tale lights but it was left loose behind the speedo.

I hate to sound daft but I don't like that. I'd rather it be the other way.

I looked at that link AZL57 posted. It looks like it would be easy to swap the wires at the switch. I can't tell the wires are riveted or held on with screws. They look like screws.

Yellow sleeve = main beam
Green sleeve = dipped beam