I didn’t take any photos today but I mixed up some J B Weld and tried to reattach the Recaro emblem back on my driver’s seat. I have blue painters tape protecting the cloth.

Here is the finished project.

If you read my 2026 POCI convention post, then you know BB wss not behaving well. One headlight would open up. The other stay closed. i lost my tail lights, fog lights, and dash lights! Plus I have a left over Check Engine light from the water pump replacement. Ugh!

Today I made some progress. It’s the first free day I have had to even look at her. I started by pulling the headlight actuator relays. Thankfully I have a shop manual for BB, so it was easy to find them after looking in the book I pulled them both. Each one had a ton of black goo all over them and around the connections. I am hoping it is old dielectric grease and not something else. Regardless it was nasty cleaning up the relays and connections.

I swapped the two relays around and nothing improved. One won’t go up or down. The other comes up but won’t go down. So they are both bad for slightly different reasons.

I then drove to my local parts store. Surprise. They don’t have them. So I am off to online shopping for new ones tonight.

I turned my attention next to the fog/dash:running lights issue. I pulled off the fuse panel cover. If you think you need to be contortionist to look at your old A, B, or C body fuse panel, think again. On a 3rd gen Firebird, it is not on the firewall. Nope it’s under the dash face down. So now you have to be a full blown circus performer to get your head between the seat, dash and steering column, then turn onto your back and look up to see this…..

Fun huh? Yeah right…..

I took a chance and the first fuse I pulled was the 20 amp fuse for the tail lights. To my morbid delight, it was blown!

I grabbed a replacement fuse, put it in, reconnected the battery , and hit the light switch. My lights are back on!

Dash lights on!

Tail lights on!

Fog lights on!

YEEESSSS!!!!

Lets hope this stays fixed!

I will be ordering new relays tonight. Tomorrow night I hope to get time to figure out the Check Engine light issue. I am hoping it is something simple, like a sensor not reconnected.

Edited 21 hours ago21 hr by Frosty

I ordered two relays from O’Reillys tonight. Supposed to be delivered on Friday.

Sounds like beer o clock for frosty !!! well done mate ! those relay housings look nasty ! got to be a heat issue too , to make that mess

And , now that you know that circut popped a fuse, you know to go back to it if it does it again ... so stick some spares in the glove box.

and your sorted..

yes, old fuse, yeah water causing a fault to earth , yes a loose some thing, this is a prosess of elimination.

and that why we love our old girls !!! they randomly surprise us !!!!!

Fix is one thing....why it happened is another. Hope it stay's working.

I have a theory on what happened. After I got BB back after the blown water pump problem, I had a week before the convention. I noticed how bad the engine bay was covered with dried brown coolant. I washed BB at the local coin car wash near the garage mahal in prep for the convention. I took a can of Gunk Engine Degreaser and sprayed the engine bay, let it sit for a few minutes, and then rinsed it off.

My guess is that either the Gunk, the nasty coolant residue, water intrusion, 40 year old original parts giving up, or some combination is what caused all this. I drove BB back home and she sat for over a week, drying out (or so I thought). The problem didn’t manifest itself until the end of the day on Tuesday, the day of the Firebird chapter cruise.

I am hoping this is the end of this issue. As for spare fuses, I bought a whole kit.

If the new relays don’t fix the headlight problem, there is one last thing I need to check. 1982-1986 third gen’s have an isolation relay between the two headlamp relays. I have not checked that yet. I have read online that this relay is all but discontinued. There is only one source for it and It costs $60 plus shipping and handling.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Frosty