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Dash Switches- 2-Headlight vs 4-Headlight Cars
By Dana Hansen
In order to address the differences in 2-headlight and 4-headlight car dash switches, I am listing the switches and their functions below from left to right as found in a 2-headlight car, beginning with the first toggle switch located to the right side of the Water Temp Gauge (Gauge layout is the same in both car configurations). Unless otherwise mentioned, the "Far Right" position is "Off". This layout only applies to Left-hand drive cars:
Dash Switches 1. Lighting (3-position switch): Off (switch in far right position), Dash & Parking Lights On(switch in center position), Headlights On (dash, parking lights and headlights all on; switch in far left position) 2. Dash light rheostat (Variable voltage sliding switch): Far right=dim, far left=bright 3. Interior Courtesy Light (2-position switch) 4. Aux. Radiator Cooling Fan (2-position switch) 5. Power Window (Driver's Window) 6. Lighter 7. Power Window (Passenger's Window) 8. Interior fan switch (2-position switch; Regardless of heat or cool - see note #2 below) 9. Air Horn (2-position switch)
10. Emergency Flashers (2-position switch)
Note #1: On 2-headlight cars exported to the USA, there was a DeTomaso of America recall which required that an additional electrical plunger switch be added to the existing manual floor lever which is used to physically raise and lower the headlight buckets. Even with the dash headlight switch "on" (Far left position), the headlights cannot illuminate until the manual headlight bucket lever is pushed down and engaged forward, thus ensuring that the lights are in proper driving position before illuminating. This is not the case for 2-headlight cars which were not exported to the USA.
Note #2: The dash switch layout on the 2-headlight cars is very different from the 4-headlight cars, as the A/C unit is neatly tucked behind the dash and does not hang below as in the 4-headlight cars. Because of this, the interior fan switch only controls fan speed (low and high), regardless of heat or a/c condition. The fan is simply moving the air at one of the two speeds. There is a Pantera-like A/C switch which rotates from full left (cool) to full right (cold) to control the A/C temperature via activating the compressor clutch, etc. Regarding interior heating, there is a manual lever under the right side of the dash which opens and closes the flow of coolant from the engine to the heater core, also located behind the dash. Finally, there is another manual lever under the left side of the dash which re-directs the air from the front dash vents to the top of dash for defrost purposes.
For a vintage hand-drawn representation of the 4-headlight configuration in a Left-Hand drive car, please see the following link: http://www.mangustainternational.com/technical_detail.php?id=16
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