well..........
one always checks the fuses, of course.
and on the type of fuse used in the 85 ( last year of that old style
'ceramic with strip of metal on the side ) ..........
those fuses commonly don't make contact on the ends if there's any
corrosion.
I commonly twist them a bit when checking them........can often make them
make contact at the ends again.
I treat the whole area with WD-40.

btw......this is how powerful WD-40 is at correcting poor contact at an
older style fuse :
I was out, saw a mercedes car with For Sale sing, rear wing, and hood up, in
front of a FLAPS  .......guy working on it. Gotta check that out, right ?
I was dressed in nice clothes, so didn't want to really touch the car
actually.  I show him where the fuse box is.
he's trying to get the high beams working.............the high beams are on,
but one isn't working............
while the circuit was energized, I sprayed a shot of WD-40 at the corroded
end of the pertinent fuse.....
there was  a puff...........and the high beams came on ......it fixed it
that fast, right before my eyes, and I didn't even *touch* the car. !

also.........that's on the power supply side.
You need to check the ground side of the circuit too.
the ground for the head lights is at a multi-point grounding connection
thing hidden above the fuse box, bit hard to access.
I change the push-on connectors, which fail to provide contact after many
years, to screw and eye terminal connection.

and learn to use a common 12 V test light to check for power and ground at
the headlight socket,
and to check fuses.
To check fuses with a test light, on this older style fuse........you
energize whatever circuit/s you are working on, and use the test light to
check for power on the metal tabs on both end of the fuse, that the fuse
plugs into.
there should be power on both ends, or metal tabs.
if there's not ......the fuse is blown, or not making contact.
in a very rare case there can be an open in the fuse box, but that is rather
rare.
have fun, do good work !
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Lincoln" <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 6:44 AM
Subject: No low beam on driver's side '85 GL

> Hello List,
>
> I'm posting this for a friend.
>
> It seems his headlights have started doing something strange. Everything
> was
> working fine but now he has no low beam on the driver side.
>
> We've swapped in several different headlights and get the same results on
> all of them. Passenger side works fine.
>
> Any ideas? I checked the archives but didn't find much fitting this
> description.
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> '90 Carat (Grover)
> '86 (We call this one Parts)
> '78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus