Looking at the 01 service manual, at the wiring diagrams for the headlights, I don't see the headlight relays, that are in the PDC..... except for the quad headlight systems.... I don't have quad headlights, I do have a relay in the PDC labeled "headlights", and a spot for a second one.... Which is just a tad confusing.

In any event, back to the point of this exercise, it appears that the headlamp switch provides the ground path for the circuit...... I could see rewiring the circuit so that the headlamp switch actually DOES simply control a relay, and have the heavy load on a shorter wire run, thru the relay......

Thoughts?

 

To fix that issue I bought a heavy duty wire harness from LMC truck (had to change two wires to make it work right) so the headlights no longer draw power from the switch. Plus I added a relay for the marker lights as well cause the seemed to be the first to go on my truck.

 

We installed LED lights on the 97 dodge 3500. Have an issue when pulling the headlights switch to on position they flicker and go out. But if just barely pulling it out they work good. Also this is a new switch.

 

New does not necessarily imply 'working properly', and it sounds like you got a bad one.

 

Or your headlight switch wiring harness has a burned/loose brass connector(s) and/or wires. It's very easy to miss unless you pull the headlight wiring harness connector forward and carefully check the brass connectors and wiring...

As was mentioned, this has been a very common problem on Dodge Ram trucks for many years. The complete solution is installing a new headlight switch, wiring harness and an LMC Truck (or similar) relay controlled headlight wiring harness to take the massive electrical load off the headlight switch. When I converted my truck to use sport style 4 bulb headlights, I installed a relayed headlight harness from these folks - https://ceautoelectricsupply.com/hea...ion-relay-kit/