Headlight Switch

[freebird01]

ok now this has me a bit pissed off....

this is for my 86 gasser but would apply to a diesel also..

I fried the plug going into the headlight switch. the parts stores offer a replacement but its for the bricknose style switch. anyone know the right part number for the 80-86 trucks?

 

[CaptTom]

Try LMC if you have time to wait for shipping... part numbers don't usually match others. Look on this page item #24, there's 4 choices: http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fd/full.aspx?Page=152

 

[freebird01]

damn they dont have it either...

i need the pigtail and connector...the switch i can get....guess i got to try and convert it to the new style switch

 

[subway]

Let me look I might have a harness.

 

[freebird01]

its ok jared....im just gunna convert it. i had bought the plug from autozone already..ill rob the switch from the diesel cab for now

 

[CaptTom]

Well ain't that a bummer! Sorry about that.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Not sure if this helps anyone any at all, but a while back I compared bricknose switch and connector to those of an '86 Econoline and they sure looked the same... Also IIRC that switch is used on just about any Ford vehicle of the '80s to early '90s vintage, so you should be able to get a bricknose connector from the parts store and then unpin all wires from both connectors and repin your '86 harness into the bricknose connector. Which wire did you burn, the brown one? Relay your headlights and running lights while you're doing the electrical work, that should take most load off the switch and prevent future failures.

 

[freebird01]

yea LCAM it was the brown wire and the tan wire with the white tracer....basically power in and out to the parking/running lights. i started at 4:00pm yesterday and finally had it fixed and the truck back together around 10pm last night. when i do the wiring on the diesel i am most certainly going to relay all the lights. should i do it on this one...probably but i just wanted it back together.

i started by doing like you said and pulling out the two pins that fried and soldered in a new wire to the pins and replaced the burnt sections. solder and heatshrink...no crimps.

one i had that fixed i proceeded to pull out all the bulbs from the markers and turn signals...now i shoved in a 30 amp fuse into the fuse block. i know...dumb since thats what fried the wiring last time bu this time i had the dash pulled and was holding the wires to feel them to see how hot they got. turned on the new switch and the wires heated up right away even with all the bulbs out. so i had a short somewhere...

i traced out the whole harness and it all looked ok. finally out of desperation i removed the whole rear harness from the tail lights. after unplugging it i checked the switch again....viola! no over heating. so i isolated my short to the tail light harness.....big surprise there i know. i found some tap connectors for a 4 wire trailer harness which didnt look bad but it i found a license plate light pigtail that the wires melted together in the middle. was dumb luck i found it. it looked like a speaker wire (they are joined in pairs). that and i think i had another wire that was rubbing the frame but not totally sure. i fixed all the bad connections and added a new ground and now my lights work.