Hey guys, been a while since I've been on here but I need a little help from the wise. My headlight switch has been slowly burning out, a couple the weeks ago the main headlight switch in the dash would activate the headlights, but after about 5 minutes the lights would start to blink on an off with no rhythm. Then the switch finally stopped working completely. Now the the highbeams toggle bar still works but you have to hold the toggle in, as the beams don't click on an stay on like their sposed to, then after a while of me riding down the road holding the turn signal bar in, the lights start to flash on an off. I'd love to try and pick up a good switch at oriellys tonight. Anybody got any advise on how to troubleshoot this?

 

Myself, I would use this as a golden opportunity to get rid of that whole mess.

Put all the head-light switch functions on good old problem-free toggle-switches = far easier than it sounds and WAY better, as in if you are half-way decent at wiring, it will never give problems again.

While you are at it, un-plug the head-light wiring that goes to the column mounted dimmer-switch and route it to a good old genuine floor mounted dimmer; you will thank me every time your boot automatically clicks that dimmer without you ever having to think about it.

At the very least, you need to do one of the head-light relay modifications to take the big load away from the in-sufficient factory switches; it will super-power your lights at the same time.

 

Sounds like the switch. Relay the headlights when you get a chance, that will keep you from ever having to replace the hadlight switch again.

 

Where's the swith located, and how do I put in the relay, don't have much of an electrical background.

 

There are several writeups located in the sticky section regarding relays.

To replace the headlight switch, you need to, IIRC:
- Remove **** from switch. There is a small spring loaded button on bottom of switch to release it. You have to reach under dash.
- Remove dash trim. 6 screws, IIRC, and clips at the bottom. Move shifter to 1 and be patient.
- Remove hollow screw holding switch to dash.
- Unplug harness.

Reverse to install. It has been a while since I did mine, so I might have forgotten something. The NAPA switch I installed first failed within a month.

 

Burris I hope you are luckier than me. I gathered up ever thing to do the relays. The next day the switch burnt out and burned the wiring harness going into it. What a mess. Found a piece of a harness at a friends house and now im having to remove the dash to get in to cut and rewire the harness. What luck. Hope your luck is better. Good luck Burris. Hey when did you excape california and move to Palmer. After I get mine fixed I'll ride up check out your truck with the new paint job you have.

 

how far away you live? sure be good to have a dodger to wrench with that knew more than I did.

 

While you are at it, I would be sure to add a relay to the park light circuit too. On the first gen trucks, I have actually seen the park light circuit burn out of the headlight switch far more often than the headlight circuit. It is a big problem, especially if you pull a trailer and its lights draw power directly through the headlight switch.

 

A big thanks to everybody that chimmed in. I've got lights again, that old swich had got so hot it had melted a third of the plastic into the prongs. I'll run relays as soon as I get around somebody with a little more wiring skill than me.

 

I went to relays, burned them up, went to 70amp relays, and now the low beam 70AMPer is dead. Had to wire them straight to the battery to get home the other night. I love Mopar, but their wiring has always sucked.
I am about to rewire the whole mess.

 

When I did my headlight switch I did not want to work under the dash. After removing the dash bezel I found that I could cut away the plastic under the bezel - around the switch. Since the switch is held in place by a metal bracket it is solid mounted and all this is covered by the bezel, it will allow easy replacement of the switch should you need to do it in the future.

To solve the switch load on the headlight side I went to the relay setup. To reduce the load on the marker/signal side I went to LEDs on all other exterior lights both on the truck and on my trailer. LEDs draw so little power compared to conventional lights I also had to go to a no load flasher to get my signals to work.

Bob

 

I preach and preach this, so I will preach some more .


The trailer-marker-lights should in NO WAY be controlled by any function of the head-light switch, not even through a relay.

The trailer-markers should have a wire AND switch all their own, independent of any of the truck's existing wiring.

I will also add that I DO NOT recommend using any of the factory supplied trailer wiring harnesses, regardless of truck manufacturer, as they are not even close to being up to my standards for trouble-free trailer wiring.

My cousin recently hooked his fancy new diesel truck, complete with "tow package", to one of my livestock trailers for a short trip of about three-hundred miles each way.

All went well until it started to get dark and he turned on the lights; about five miles later, all went dark.

He spent the rest of the trip swapping fuses and ended up un-plugging the trailer and driving dark.

I have since pulled that same trailer behind several of the trucks that I have wired myself with no issues whatsoever.

 

Bearkiller, maybe you could do a write up or two on how to wire these things up for those of us less electrically inclined as yourself. Please??!!

 

OKAY, here it is :

What you will NOT need :

Scotch-lok connectors.

Black Tape.

Duct Tape.

Relay.


What you will need :

Female trailer plug of your choice.

Enough 12-AWG or 10-AWG wire to reach from the plug to the toggle-switch located inside the cab, plus plenty of slack.

Enough of same wire to reach from the toggle-switch to your HOT junction-stud under the hood, or the HOT post of the battery, plus slack.

A 30-amp fuse holder of your choice, either in-line of fuse-block.

A BIG toggle-switch, one that goes "CLICK" like the hammer on Matt Dillon's gun; you will more likely find these hanging on the wall in big truck-stops than at your local auto-parts.

Crimp-on ring-terminals.

Solder and plenty of heat-shrink tube.

Plenty of zip-ties.

Plastic wire loom.

Anything else that I forgot to mention.



Just follow the circuit =

HOT source under the hood to 30-amp fuse to BIG toggle-switch.

BIG toggle-switch to the TM terminal on the trailer plug and you're done.


This circuit will insure you that anything that knocks out the trailer-markers IS NOT anything on the truck's side of things; and, short of blowing up the battery, no fault in either the trailer wiring or the truck's side of the trailer wiring will affect the function of the truck's lighting whatsoever.


Of course, my system has a lot more bells and whistles, such as tandem-relayed turn-signals, progressively weaker multi-fuse protection that isolates each portion of the circuit such that I can pin-point a short-to-GROUND, plus I have a dedicated trailer terminal box ON THE TRUCK to which I can tap any number of different trailer plugs OR swap a few wires around such that I can pull a trailer that was wired by someone that didn't know what they were doing.

It would take a book to describe the wiring system on my personal cattle-trailer.


The circuit I described is far simpler than tapping into the truck's wiring; remember, just wire, fuse, wire, toggle-switch, wire, trailer-plug.

 

If you're going to wire your trailer lights that way, may I suggest a self-resetting circuit breaker instead of a fuse?