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Electrical Gremlin help request {fixed it!}

pblaze725

pblaze725

build bash rebuild
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Everything worked fine then all of the sudden I have no dash lights, no tail lights.
When I turn on my headlights the under dash light comes on, when I twist the headlight knob to turn it off the overhead dome light comes on.

I checked all but 1 fuse. There were about 3 fuses burned out so I replaced them but it didn't fix the problem.

I checked the connection at the steering column and it looked good. I unplugged it, inspected it , and plugged it back in.

Still no luck.

Also I installed diodes at the tail lights for flat towing. They have always worked fine.


:sign27:
 
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Without thinking it out a whole lot, or looking at the wiring diagram, I think I'd inspect however you installed the diodes, and then I'd inspect all the headlight and taillight grounds.

FWIW the interior lights ground through the headlight switch (through the way it is held to the dash panel) but the headlights and tail lights are grounded near the bulbs themselves, and at least for the headlights, the lights get 12V from the switch, not ground. That ignores the door switches, but if messing with the headlights changes things, I don't know as I'd suspect the door switches.
 
pblaze725 said:
Everything worked fine then all of the sudden I have no dash lights, no tail lights.
When I turn on my headlights the under dash light comes on, when I twist the headlight knob to turn it off the overhead dome light comes on.

I checked all but 1 fuse. There were about 3 fuses burned out so I replaced them but it didn't fix the problem.

I checked the connection at the steering column and it looked good. I unplugged it, inspected it , and plugged it back in.

Still no luck.

Also I installed diodes at the tail lights for flat towing. They have always worked fine.


:sign27:
Click to expand...

When you say "all of a sudden," do you mean while you were driving down the road or it was fine yesterday and stupid today when you went to get back in it?
 
mrwilliamsburg33 said:
When you say "all of a sudden," do you mean while you were driving down the road or it was fine yesterday and stupid today when you went to get back in it?
Click to expand...
It worked fine, then I hit the trail. I did a few quick runs, maybe caught a little air and then drive home the next morning. Then the following day I drove it to work and that's when I noticed the problem.
Common sense tells me I bounced around and caused a short but I don't know where. I haven't had any issues with the diodes since I installed them years ago. I don't see why they would make my dash lights go out.
ktmoutfront said:
Ground issue.

Which fuses were blown?
Click to expand...
It's always the ground!

I'm not sure what the 3 fuses went to. They were right in the center of the fuse box.
 
It sounds like all of your problems share one thing in common. That's the headlight pull knob switch. Everything you mentioned going wrong gets its on/off instructions from this switch. I'd try replacing it with a donor from a salvage yard. My two cents...
 
PWagon said:
It sounds like all of your problems share one thing in common. That's the headlight pull knob switch. Everything you mentioned going wrong gets its on/off instructions from this switch. I'd try replacing it with a donor from a salvage yard. My two cents...
Click to expand...
Yup start checking there
I would suggest a multimeter and needle to poke wires and check wires.
It doesn't hurt to add additional grounds as well. Good luck
 
PWagon said:
It sounds like all of your problems share one thing in common. That's the headlight pull knob switch. Everything you mentioned going wrong gets its on/off instructions from this switch. I'd try replacing it with a donor from a salvage yard. My two cents...
Click to expand...

I was just thinking the same thing this morning. :D

Thanks:waytogo:
 
But the under dash light being on in one position and going off when the dome light is turned on shows a back feed of power. The switch could not do that as both of those come off of the same switch wire.
 
ktmoutfront said:
But the under dash light being on in one position and going off when the dome light is turned on shows a back feed of power. The switch could not do that as both of those come off of the same switch wire.
Click to expand...

Interesting. :thinking:

The fact remains that the Dash lights, Dome lights, and tail lights all have the headlight switch in common.
A broken headlight switch could be causing the back feed eh?

There very well could be more than 1 short.:doah:
 
And none of the fuses you put back in that were blown have re-blown? When i had my fuse blow on my 78, all i had was headlights. No nothing else. Except i did get a dull dome light(without having the dome light switch on.
 
Fuse block

Look at this mess!!:doah:


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Yes sir, the fuse in the center popped.

I need to look up what it goes to.

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Don't do this

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So I installed my hillbilly fuse and it only took about 3 seconds before it got red hot.:eek1:



Just for a split second my overhead and under dash lights were in sync, right before it caught fire.

Now that I found gremlin tracks, I should be able to find it and kill it.

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I hooked the tow lights up to the Tundra, taillights work so this eliminates a massive bulb and diode failure.

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Shackle Flip

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It looks like I pinched the tail light wires when I installed my DIY4X shackle flip bridge nuts. :doah::doah:

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