Notorious Light Switch!!!!

[rfitzgarrald]

Help! :{

The good ol' Dodge boys have struck again! Had to drive home from work this morning (1:30am) by way of emergency flashers and flashlight. (still had headlights though!) The problem is the connector that plugs onto the headlite switch is melted around the pink/red and blk/ylw wires. I need to find a new connector block if that is possible.



I'm going to try Napa. Got no place else to turn to, the stealer's parts dept. won't be open 'til Monday.

Any other suggestions?



P. S. Going to wire in a heavy duty contactor so the running lights

current goes thru it instead of the little puny 18ga. wire that is rated at 8-10 amps. Drawing board engineers; Don't ya just love 'em?



If anyone has a fix you can pm me or if you live in the area you can call me at 805-659-2614.



Thanks

 

[farmall]

Been there and done that this Fall. Scared the shutt out of me when it let the smoke out through the vents. Anyways I got mine from the stealer. Except I got the later heavier one for a 97' I think it was. You can do a search on here and get the part number. If I am not mistaken I think Autozone carries the switch. I am not sure if they have the plug though. That is exactly where mine went bad and it took me a good while to get it apart just to look at it. I think I paid $62. 09 for the switch and harness at the stealer, but he always gives me a pretty good price. I think it list for $74. Bill

 

[rfitzgarrald]

Notorious headlight switch

Well I don't have it fixed yet!, but I do have all of the parts.

Thanks to Napa for the lite switch ($24), Jerry @ Fillmore Family Motors, Fillmore,Ca. and Mike Mullings at our good friends at H. W. Hunter Dodge in Lancaster,Ca.

Fillmore Family Motors didn't have the lite switch insulator p/n 3843141 but he found one at Hunter Dodge in Lancaster (130mi. one-way). Had to drive all the way out there because our local dealer, Crown Dodge of Ventura isn't open on Sat.

The insulator was only $3 bucks or so, but Mike showed me the repair kit p/n 5019911-AA. The kit comes with, insulator,heavier wires w/lugs already crimped on, & heatshrink tubing. List price :$67. 79, I mentioned to him I belong to TDR and he gave it to me for $53. 05

So you know where I'll be tomorrow, under the dash!

BTW; I'm also going to wire in a relay so I won't have this problem

AGAIN!!!

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Rich Hoefer]

Tail Lights Out

Just put my 93 Dodge club cab in the front yard with a for sale sign in it and i found my tail , marker, dash lights not working. I checked all the fuses, non blown, I pulled the headlight switch and there was a bit of melt looking area between the 2 center spade connectors that are parralell to each othe right in the middle of the switch spades. I replaced the switch and still no tail, dash, Marker lights. The molded plug that plugs onto the switch appears to be in good condition and no melting or arking appears to have been happening. Is there a seperate fuse for the tail light circut, as the fuse panel does not list a fuse for tail lights.

Have any og you fellas had this problem?

Thanks for any help you can give me: Rich

 

[Rich Hoefer]

tail lights out

I found my problem, the insulator is melted, I didn't look close enough the first time. so will replace it and should be good to go. will do some improving on the wireing tho, to keep this from happening again.

Thanks Rich

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

The headlight switch/circuit is not able to handle any extra load...

ANY uprating of the light system such as more powerful Halogen bulbs/kits, driving lights, fog lights etc. will kill that switch and/or connectors.

If you plan on any of the above items or similar things, use a

relay(s) to route thru.



Bob.

 

[Rich Hoefer]

Tail Lights Out

You would think that the engineers that design these electrical systems would pull their heads out of their --- well you know where, and design the system to handle the intended loads, In my case, I never did any added lights except for towing a trailer, Thats not that much to ask of a headlight system.

Ford went through this back in the 60's and early 70's, when adding a trailer, it wasn't long till the headlight swicth and related wiring went to pot and caused a lot of problems. When will they wake up?

 

[Midnite]

rfitzgarrald, do you have phone numbers for the dealership you got the part from? My headlight switch just fried, and I'd like to see if they can FedEx the stuff to me.



Thanks,

Mike

 

[Rich Hoefer]

Tail lights out

Midnight, you can get the switch from NAPA, part number is HL 6548, and the Dodge insulator part number is 3843141. I bought the switch from NAPA and the insulator from my Dodge Dealer here in Tacoma, the dealer name is Tacoma Dodge, and the phone number is toll free 1-800-426-5337, local parts direct number is 253-475-7971. The main phone number for them is 253-475-7300.

I just paid $1. 70 for the insulator and I paid $26. 29 for the switch at NAPA.

Tacoma Dodge has a repair kit that includes a new switch, the wire harness insulator with some short pigtails of wire so you can cut the original wire back and splice the new wire in, if your wire has burnt back a ways from that insulator, The cost was some where close to $36. 00 for this repair kit.

If you call Tacoma Dodge, when you get the parts dept, ask for a girl by the name of Evyett and tell her Rich Hoefer refered you, she is my daughters best friend and may be able to cut you a lower price than a walk in off the street person.

 

[Midnite]

Excellent--that's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks very much Rich!



Mike

 

[Wayno]

When I bought my truck back in 97 I took all the clearance lights (cab, side markers and all the add-on running board lights) and ran a wire right off the battery with a fuss breaker and a toggle switch so they would not be on the head light switch . That has been 70 thousand miles ago and I am still on the factory head light switch . I didn't even know about a head light switch (or about the TDR) problem back then , but then again I always run black - out - light switches on all my cars and trucks that I have own .

 

[RamAZ]

I got the new switch repair kit from the dealer today and started on the replacement this afternoon.



I will cut the wires tomorrow and install the new switch and connector in the AM. Took awhile to get the switch out from the dash, you would think they would make the wires on the original harness a couple of inches longer, but the cost was just to much I bet.



I'm going to make the wires a couple of inches longer for the next time if there is a next time for this.



Any pointers on how to do this installation from those who have done this job before would be appreciated.



Thanks in advance.



Jim

 

[Paychk]

Yes, make use of solder and heat shrink on the connections and stagger the joints, so the wire bundle doesn't end up looking like a snake that just at a rat. Last if you use zip ties don't cinch them tight, if you see them compressing the insulation, that is too tight. When the bundle turns a radius some of the wires will be stretched tight, with loose zip ties the wires will slip past each other and conform to the radius stress free. Also make use of dielectric silicone grease on the new connector, this will prevent corrosion of the spade connectors and if you tow a trailer with a lot of lights or drive a Dually, which has more lights that a wheel limited rig, give some strong thought to installing a relay to take the load off the switch.

 

[RDusch]

Here is a link to the wiring diagrams for a fix i did on my truck, i removed the headlight's from the switch and control the HB and LB thru Aux relays this takes all the amp draw away from the switch and places it on the relays, this will also brighten your headlights greatly by increasing the actual voltage getting to the bulbs, if you check now you'll see that inly get between 10. 5 and 11 vdc actually at the bulbs, with the relays you Will get a solid 12. 5-14 vdc ... ... ... ..... Rick



headlight diagram