headlight switch acting up

[longhorn795]

okay so my headlight switch has been acting up on my 89 ford for a while now and just when im driving down the road the park light's and headlight's start blinking off and on, so on my old switch i would have to find a sweet spot as i called it when both the park light's and headlight's work, so i baught me a new switch today and stil doing the same thing, when you pull the switch all the way out only the headlight's will work then if you push in jus a lil bit both park lights and headlight's will work, then if you wiggle the switch a lil they will start flashing on and off. I dont know what's causing this id figured it was the switch but it's not, could it be the rod that you use to pull in and out of the switch?, because when i baught the new one it didnt come with one and i had to use my old one. thanks

 

[Jake_IN]

Did you check your fuses? For awhile i was blowing the running light/dash light fuse and i figured out if you pushed the switch in a little bit it would make them come back on. However i didn't like doing that because obviously there was a reason the fuse was blowing. Figured out that the license plate light harness was rubbing on the edge of the frame rail and had rubbed through the wire causing a short circuit. Also could be your switch is toast. They have a tendency to not last to do that.

 

[bghnkinf350]

Check the connector. Mine was doing the same thing. I replaced the switch and there was still a problem. The light brown wire had pulled out of the connector and once I repaired the wire, lights worked great again!

 

[longhorn795]

could my problem be in the dimmer as i had to replace it a while back and it had bad corrison on it

 

[longhorn795]

i have also got some melted wiring going to the headlight switch where my tail light's shorted out at one time. this is probably my problem.

 

[franklin2]

i have also got some melted wiring going to the headlight switch where my tail light's shorted out at one time. this is probably my problem.

Yes, that's your problem. You do not have any power on the tan/white wire which feeds the running lights circuit to the headlight switch. This wire likes to melt, sometimes completely in two.

What you are doing when you put the switch in a "mid position" is crossing the contacts up inside the switch. The headlight switch has several power sources. The headlight power comes in separately from the running lights power. You still have the headlight power feed, but you have lost your running light feed, so when you fiddle with the switch, your making the headlight power feed the headlights and the running lights.

 

[KyleQ]

Do yourself a favor and run your headlights off a relay - way too much power going through that old switch...