My buddy gave me his durango and it didn’t have tail lights or dash lights.


I pulled the head light switch and found this. I guess at sometime it shorted and fried the plug.but What would cause that? Can I rewire a new plug or do I need a hole new light switch harness

 

See how far back the wires are damaged. That's actually not an uncommon occurrence, but, I see it more on trucks, than rangos. Getting a 'heavy duty headlight harness' (relays and plugs, so the headlights are fed direction from the battery, via the relay) is a good idea to avoid such a thing happening again.

 

yeah I started taking the dash apart had limited amount of time so I didn’t make it terribly far they were a little burnt coming from the plug but nothing in visual as far back as I could see. Is it possible the switch it’s self shorted?

 

Wouldn't hurt to replace it. Biggest thing though, is to reduce the load on the switch. That's what the relay harness is for.

 

Could you send me a link to find one or is that something I’ll have to custom build?

 

This one is for Ram Trucks, which you could likely adapt to suit your purposes.... (makes a difference how many headlight bulbs you have up front....) I can't find one specifically for a durango with a quick search..... Either that, or just build your own. There are schematics for the 2nd gen trucks in 2nd Gen Ram FAQ/DIY section.

 

awesome thank you I’m gonna assume they are the same but also verify before buying anything I wonder how easy they are to set up

 

I think it took me all of about 40 minutes to install mine. Most of that time spent routing harnesses and such out of the way.

 

heck yeah that sounds like a good deal to me! Thank you for all your help! So if I find no other damage to the wires I’m good to just cut the old plug off where the insulation isn’t black and splice it In?

 

Yep. I would be tempted to replace the switch as well, it isn't hideously expensive, and avoid potential problems in the future.