LUVTruck.com

When I pull the switch for my lights my headlights come on, but my dash lights and my rear lights don't come on.

My rear lights still work for brakes, so it's not the lights. My fuses are okay, so it's not a fuse issue.

Only thing left I can think of is the switch is broken.

Anyone else have a better idea? I need this fixed ASAP.

Also, I can't find Headlight or dash lights relays or fuses. Where are those located?

Thanks!
~Nick

If the switch is bad, the front side marker lights should not come on either. Headlights are a separate circuit with a circuit breaker. With no dash lights and no outside "running" lights, there are two common things. The switch which you suspect and the fuse. A fuse can look good but be bad. I speak from long experience. 21 years as an aircraft electrian. Replace the fuse with a known good one. Sometimes the end of the fuse wire inside the case becomes separated from one end, and you can't tell by looking at it. And before you replace the switch, use a jumper wire to bypass the switch at it's connector to make sure the various lights will come on. The fuses on my '80 are on the driver's side in front of the firewall in the engine compartment.

If that doesn't work, trace the wire run to the back of the truck. It runs along the frame on the passenger sice of the vehicle. Mine was chrushed, burnt, and shorted to the frame there. I had ot cut out a chunck of the run and resplice it all to get my lighting to work. I hope yours is not this extreme, but take the time to check the entire run...

HTH
Jon

_________________
Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

I had the same problem as Kuransoke, mine was for one of the tail lights and also my fuel pump. just my two pennies.
Later
Husker

Kuranosuke

Had an even "cuter" one. The back muffler clamp on my big 250 came loose, and the bend over the rear axle rotated down pointing the end of the tailpipe up at the wiring to the tail light assembly. Hot exhaust toasted the wires into a intermittent, resistive short that made all my exterior lights act wild and crazy. Step on the brake pedal and you got hazard lights all around. Stuff like that. Of couse, this had to happen in the winter with 6 inches of snow on the ground. And I had no garage at the time. As Charley Brown would say, "AAArrgh!"

Yeah, I can relate. I was laying on the ground in the Oregon rain last winter fixing mine. It pretty much sucked.

Nick: I can't tell you how important it is for you to carefully inspect the run. If the problem is a ground, you'll be chasing your tail for days if you don't take it slow and pay attention to detail...

_________________
Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

Nick, if you still have your stock fusebox, theres a bunch of problems it can create for you in the long run. I used to intermittently have annoying problems like yours. I wrote here not too long ago that if I so much as looked at my fusebox the wrong way something would stop working. My solution started with ripping the old fusebox out and installing a new one inside the cab of the truck, under the dash. All my electrical problems are gone and it didn't even cost me much. You can PM me if you want me to tell you what I did and how I did it...

Well, I got a new switch and it didn't seem to do anything. The only thing I can think of is a ground came loose somewhere, but I have no idea where to start looking in that mess of wiring.

Really I should just get a wiring kit and redo the whole thing. The wiring on that truck is the biggest mess you could imagine. Wires with no ends just hanging everywhere. It's a nightmare. We're talking British car wiring type nightmare (anyone whose owned a British roadster knows what I'm talking about! ).

Thanks anyways for all your help!

I had the same problem couple of weeks ago, it was the fuse box not getting conection with the fuse. I roughed up the contacts on a bad fuse and used that to clean the connectors inside the box.'

seemed to work.

_________________
1981 Chevy LUV 4x4 2.2L Diesel 4 Speed Selling out moving over to VW TDIs.

Turns out that there's a short somewhere in the dash and was frying the switch making it only turn the headlights on. So for now I just made a jumper with one of the fried switches and am going without dash lights until I can find the short.

Sucks, but atleast I feel better knowing what the problem is!