1970 RR headlight switch question

[Lucky Lar]

I pulled out my headlight switch (original) after checking the fuse
Because the tail lights & dash lights stopped working
I Was able to take it apart, clean it up,
put it back together, without breaking something (amazing)
now it works again (amazing X 2)
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I noticed that there is a set of contact points inside of the switch
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Can somebody tell me what these points do & how they work?
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I cleaned the contacts just like a set of ignition points, not sure if that fixed my problem or just cleaning up the other electrical connections fixed it ???
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Any electrical experts out there that know what these points do & how they work?
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just want to learn something new to me
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Thanks Larry

 

[garrett1308]

I’m not looking at one right now, but I’m pretty sure that the coil in there works to change the resistance to dim the lights, and the contact at the end turns on the courtesy lights. There is a contact that rides the coil and pops up onto the other contact, which is the click feel when turning on the courtesy lights. Pretty sure, not positive...

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I’m not looking at one right now, but I’m pretty sure that the coil in there works to change the resistance to dim the lights, and the contact at the end turns on the courtesy lights. There is a contact that rides the coil and pops up onto the other contact, which is the click feel when turning on the courtesy lights. Pretty sure, not positive...

I'm 99.9% sure you are exactly correct garrett

 

[WileE]

The rocker switch turns the circuits on/ off. The thumbwheel rheostat varies the resistance to dim the dash lights.

 

[Lucky Lar]

I was talking about inside the 3 position rocker switch not the dimmer wheel switch.
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Inside the rocker switch is a set of points, you can see them in the attached picture
the points are just below the copper circle
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I would like to know what they do & how it works
not sure why or how they would open or close???

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[garrett1308]

Oops, thought you meant the roller switch. I’ll take another educated guess at the rocker one, the points are opened and closed based off the position of the rocker, allowing current to flow through a desired circuit or set of circuits.

 

[Lucky Lar]

somebody on another board said it is a circuit breaker
the rocker does not do anything as far as opening and closing the points as far as i can see, i guess if it gets to hot maybe the points open up???
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hopefully somebody can explain it better