92 Headlight/Battery Problem

[trnorton]

Howdy All,

I LOVE my 92 LeSabre but my cars previous owner liked to tinker and he may have created a problem with a work around I inhereted with the car.

The headlights would not come on after the on/off button is pushed (running lights and all other headlight related functions like dimming dash lights worked fine) Solution - previous owner installed a bypass switch that turns on the lights - I assume bypassing a faulty relay that cost money to replace (he was thrifty). This worked fine for me the new owner until the switch came loose and so did one of the wires. I removed the plastic panel under the steering collom and found a thick red wire (power) that the wire to the switch must have been attached to. However there is also a smaller gauge gray wire that had been stripped partially to expose wire for... who knows. I reattached the red wire to the bypass switch and the headlights returned - I left the smaller guage gray wire allone but stuck some electrical tape on the bare spot.

All was well until several days later my battery guage started reading lower and lower toward the negative...then the red light came on for a couple of days.
Now on my way home from work car stalls and will not restart. Push to the side of the road cursing myself for wearing flip flops. Car sits for 10 min. Then starts - stalls after a few min.

Although the alternator and battery were replaced before I got the car - I am suspecting the alternator has not been adequately charging the battery.

My question - could the gray wire be a factor? The headlight bypass? or is a coincidence that the alternator problem happened around the time of the headlight switch fiasco.

Anyone?