February 2015, take 2. Not the usual headlight problem.

On one sunny day I decided it was time to fit the driving lights under the bumper.  These are some Hella Comet 450 lamps that I have had on several previous cars and give a good amount light from a small (ish) square lamp.  They would operate via a switch from main beam to give a nice bit of extra light down the road and would have the additional benefit of being there immediately if I used the "Flash" on the column stalk. No wait for the main light pods to rise.  I had already installed the switch and wiring ready when I did the relays for the headlamps so it was just fit the lamps. Easy.
YES and NO!
Yes, the lamps were dead easy.
No, when I tested them I found the left headlamp would only give a faint glow.   Bugger!  I had apparently upset something during the work.
Obviously the usual earthing problem then?
No,  when I checked the earth connection was all clean and tight because I had redone those when I put the car on the road. The headlamp pod also went up and down perfectly but the light stayed dim.
Undid the white plug in the engine bay and it was all good at that point so this meant the fault could only be between the connectors there and the light unit itself.
Cutting a (very) long story short I found an old bodged joint in the pod just behind the headlamp cup. Same problem I had on the other side - see previous blog post May 2014.  It was the old story of problems caused by someone doing shoddy work on the car previously, probably when it was resprayed.  Fixing the fault took me most of a day and required taking out the whole headlamp and lift motor assembly.  That battery cut off switch I recently fitted was worth its weight in gold as you could just disconnect the battery with the headlamp in the up position to work on them safely.

Hella Comet 450 Driving Lights fitted.