HEad light switch and wires

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Khyron

Token "B" Body
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while driving the new duster home the other day the car blew a fuse and the parking lights stopped working, Dash lights also didn't work, I bought a new switch but after i pulled the dash out i noticed that the harness going to the switch was had melted :eek:ops:

this must have been like this awhile, there was some old electrical tape around a few wires and well, something must not have grounded right, or grounded wrong.

does anyone have a diagram and maybe a few pictures of the wire harness, specifically the color wires and where they are positioned in the harness. Thanks.
 
Root through here and find the schematic for your year of car.

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=24

Look at sheet B of your schematic and you will find the headlight switch connector; it is usually on the lower part of sheet B. The connections as laid out on the schematic will actually be arranged like the physical connections on the headlight.

IN general, these are the colors and functions and the leteer in () is stamped on the switch itself :
Light green = main headlight output to dimmer (H)
Tan = wire to instrument lights (goes via a fuse in the fuse panel) (I)
Yellow = switch grounds this to complete dome light circuit (D)
Pink = fused power (B2)
Black = main power in for headlights (B1)
Black ? = Parking lights (P)
Black ? = Taillights (R) (amy be combined with taillights out of one connection)
 
thanks, but there don't seem to be 3 blacks and the block seems melted a bit..the problem, is when i connect the wires, the dimmer coil GLOWS RED... that can't be good lol

I did download the diagrams and tried to trace it out, I was hoping for an actual picture of the connector... maybe i could just buy a new connector?
 
maybe the brown is really the tan wire you mentioned.... switch heats up when i plug it in.. maybe there is a bad ground someplace... i'll start hunting that route.
 
Yeah a glowing rheostat is not considered good! The instument lamp circuit power:
- feeds from the B2 connection to the switch (that comes from the fuse panel for brake and parking lights)
- passes through the rheostat in the switch on the switch's I terminal
- goes back to the fuse panel on the tan wire
- feeds back out of that 'Instrument' fuse on orange wires to the various instrument lamps.

That 2nd fuse ought to blow if there is so much current through the rheostat that is glows. So there may be 2 things going on:
1) There is a short to ground on the tan wire somewhere
2) Somehow there is a short to 12v on the tan wire (or someone hooked a power wire to where the tan wire should go in the switch's connector) and it feeding power back through the rehostat into other circuits, like the taillights and parking lights

BTW, there may be 2 black wires or 3. This switch was used for years in many Mopars, and some models had the tailights and parking lights both connected to one tab (either the P or R conenctions) or separately to the P and R terminals. Your car appears to use just one connection for both parking and tailights, and appears to have both a black wire (tailights) and a yellow wire (parking lights) going to one of these 2 terminals.

Sure sounds like you are going to need a new connector body for this to work well. (You probably know that you can put a small screwdriver into each slot in the connector body and press a small tab on each terminal and release it from the body.)
 
nm9stheham said:
Yeah a glowing rheostat is not considered good! The instument lamp circuit power:
- feeds from the B2 connection to the switch (that comes from the fuse panel for brake and parking lights)
- passes through the rheostat in the switch on the switch's I terminal
- goes back to the fuse panel on the tan wire
- feeds back out of that 'Instrument' fuse on orange wires to the various instrument lamps.

That 2nd fuse ought to blow if there is so much current through the rheostat that is glows. So there may be 2 things going on:
1) There is a short to ground on the tan wire somewhere
2) Somehow there is a short to 12v on the tan wire (or someone hooked a power wire to where the tan wire should go in the switch's connector) and it feeding power back through the rehostat into other circuits, like the taillights and parking lights

BTW, there may be 2 black wires or 3. This switch was used for years in many Mopars, and some models had the tailights and parking lights both connected to one tab (either the P or R conenctions) or separately to the P and R terminals. Your car appears to use just one connection for both parking and tailights, and appears to have both a black wire (tailights) and a yellow wire (parking lights) going to one of these 2 terminals.

Sure sounds like you are going to need a new connector body for this to work well. (You probably know that you can put a small screwdriver into each slot in the connector body and press a small tab on each terminal and release it from the body.)
Click to expand...

good info, I will trace it out and see if they spliced into it, i bet they did someplace, i'm going to a local mopar parts uy in the area on sunday to pick up 2 new bumpers, he had pole barns full of stuff, i'll see if he has another harness :) if not, i'm sure i can locate a new connection block, thats a lot for the info, i'll let u know how i make out.
 
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