Hey,

maybe someone can help me with a electrical problem.
I have a 95 dodge Ram 1500 4x4 318. My cluster lights are out, then my head light went out, fuse# 13 keeps blowing out.
I put a new headlight switch in last night, It blew another fuse and some smoking from the switch. I pulled the switch and found that the plug it self had one burnt outlet.
Now I talk to a local parts guy and he said that there had been problems with these plugs shorting out. I've called 2 dodged dealers and nether parts or service dept. could help. They check for any bulletin or recalls and there were none for this problem.
The parts available are (just the switch and switch with the pig tail) so I guess my question is, should I continue to trouble shoot the electric problem or just get a new (switch pig tail combo) and splice it in saving time but not $$$. Has anyone ran into this before..

Thanks,

Dave

 

weird, same thing just happened to me today. i took it apart and the part that plugs into the switch is melted. i could also see it sparking from the green wire which is the one that goes to the head lights. i was thinking of going to the junk yard and buying a switch and the connector and just splicing it to the wires in my truck. if any one has had this problem and found a way to fix please let us know. thanks

 

There is so called "Customer Satisfaction Notice" refering to a recal for the 1994 to 1997 Dodge Ram 3500.

 

Yes there WAS a recall ,on those , not the newer trucks , like 98 and up it had to do with ,chrysler not putting a strong enough headlight switch , on the trucks ,that have factory clearance lights, it burned up the switch, Chrysler relaced the switch with an updated (stronger) switch free of charge
but it was for the 94-97 3500 trucks, might still pertain to you

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/recalls/819.htm

 

I had the same thing happen on my 98 1500 except mine would cause the lights to just intermitently cut off and on. 1st time it started happening the plug melted and switch went bad, second time just switch, and now has started happening again but I havent taken it apart to see the damage yet.

 

This is why I and several others have rerouted our headlights through relays, so there's no load on the switch itself, and our headlights/fog lights are slightly brighter as well because they are pulling power straight from the battery.

 

I had a similar problem. I could see that my headlight switch connector was melted but my switch still looked good so I replaced my headlight switch connector and installed the heavy duty harness from LMC truck to take the load off of the switch. This solved my problem. I know that hometheaterman had trouble with his harness from LMC but mine is still working fine. Rockauto.com has the connector for $26+shipping.

 

Light switch and wiring harness burnt on my 1997 Dodge Ram 1500. I was told by the auto parts store that this is a common problem. The replacement harness has larger wires to splice into smaller wires. This basically will cause an overheating problem on the connections and could start a fire. There is a recall on this part, but only for the 3500 Dodge, and it happens to be the same part for the 1500. According to the parts store, it is happening on 1994 through 2001. Why is there not a recall on ALL Dodge Rams?

 

Add me to the list. Tonight I went to turn on my headlights, and I pulled it to turn them on, and it came almost all the way out. I pushed it back in and pullled....my headlights came on, but no cluster lights or fog lights/parking lights.

 

Hi all, I am new to this place. I too am having headlight problems. I finally got a "qualified" person to check out my truck. I was going to go to the junkyard too, to get a replacement part - switch - but instead I am going to try my luck at the local Dodge dealers. I am hesitant to get the part from the junkyard and then down the road the same thing happens again. I was out to the grocery store at 10pm, got all my groceries then went to go home and what the hell, where's my lights? After a small panic I had my son come and get me. I'm lucky I didn't get pulled over by the cops, I stayed real close to my son and I followed him home. I haven't been able to go anywhere after dark, ha, ha, ha, I'm still laughing about it. Thanks Dave, you helped me out, seeing as I'm not the only one going through this