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1st Gen Ram Tech'93 & older Rams: This section is for TECHNICAL discussions only, that involve 1993 Rams and older. For any non-tech discussions, please direct your attention to the "General discussion/NON-tech" sub sections.
Howdy all,
My GF has a 1st Gen 1989 Ram truck that the headlights stopped working on. She can get the high beams to work only if she holds the multi-function switch forward. My first thought was that it could be the headlight switch itself but I pulled it and it isn't burnt and tested good with a multimeter. Parts store sold her a new relay but I am not sure which or where it is under the hood. Any help with troubleshooting this would be appreciated.
no headlight relays on these things unless you install one. do the high beams work and stay on? almost sounds like it might just the dimmer switch. sounds like power is getting to the switch just not past the switch
no headlight relays on these things unless you install one. do the high beams work and stay on? almost sounds like it might just the dimmer switch. sounds like power is getting to the switch just not past the switch
The only time the headlights work is with the multi-function switch being pulled towards you. You have to keep it pulled towards you to make the high beams stay on. I'm leaning towards it being a bad multi-function switch but am not 100% sure.
should be able to unplug the dimmer switch and jump some of the wires to test things. you could try taking the old dimmer switch out and running some contact cleaner through it to see if it can be cleaned/fixed. it is not like the 2nd gen ones where it is all in 1. there is rods that run from the switch to the wiper switch arm that you can see on the 1 side of the column.
you don't need to pull the steering column apart to replace it. you just look up beside the hood pull latch and you can see the dimmer switch on the column. should be easy to pop the connector off or just remove the switch all together to test it. think there is only 2 nuts holding it on. red goes to the high beams, violet goes to the low beams. green is power input.
Okay I had the year wrong on her truck.
It's a 1992 and I looked under the dash and there isn't a connector like the one you described. She's already bought a multi-function switch so I replaced it just to see if it helped. Of course it didn't.
Any other ideas?
I'm back to thinking it might be headlight switch itself.
ok yup 91 was the first year for the newer style column that they used for a while. does it have tilt steering? might be able to see if power is making it to the multi function switch. i would maybe guess it has tilt steering and the wire may have broke between the headlight switch and the multi function switch. really not much to these
Last edited by crazzywolfie; Nov 25, 2019 at 11:34 PM.
Nope not a tilt wheel. Thanks for the wiring diagram. I'm going to yank it apart next week and get my multi-meter out and start testing stuff. I did test at the headlights and am not getting power to them on low beam and then get power on hi beam but again only when you hold the switch towards you. I'll pull the headlight switch and test it also again. Can't find any burnt wires that I can see so I am scratching my head on this one.
Need some Headlight help
