while installing new headlight bulbs (standard 7" sealed beam H4 connectors) i ran into a situation with the wiring that has me a bit confused.
it seems that when the headlight switch is on and the dimmer switch is set to dim, that as expected, the dim wire in the headlight bucket's H4 connector is hot and that the one for the bright wire is not. but when i push the dimmer switch for the bright lights i'm getting current to BOTH the bright wire AND the dim wire at the same time! can this be right? and so am worried about too much heat, current and/or premature failure.
i've verified that this is occurring on both right and left side headlight H4 connectors. i've even removed the raw wires from the connectors to eliminate a possible short in the connectors
to verify that my concern was justified, i immediately confirmed, using another vehicle i own, that the dimmer switch and circuitry to the H4 connector worked as i assumed it did and that the two circuits (dim and bright) worked independently of one another and were mutually exclusive. my research shows that the 1941 ford's should be no different.
a bit puzzled, wondering if there is/was some sort of 6v-generator-dependent-home-brewed-attempt to increase brightness that might be in play here. or maybe even an aftermarket dimmer switch that is/was purposely designed to make this happen...possibly?
i really don't want to have to crawl under the car and try to access the dimmer switch (which is impossible for me, alone, to remove from the floorboard, seeing as how it involves two bolts from the floorboard side and two nuts from underneath the car that i can't even see or touch) with my multimeter to verify that i'm getting mutually exclusive current from the high and low beam connectors.