Hello all. Merry Christmas.
My dash lights have gone out, and at the same time, my tail lights. Brake lights and turn sigs work fine. I cant seem to locate the fuse, on the side of the dash, or beneath the hood. Any one know wich one it would be? Im assuming a fuse is the culprit, anyway..

 

What year is your truck? (should really put that info in your sig. )

 

1996 3500

 

Fuse 13 in the one on the side of the dash.

If the fuse is good, have a close look at the headlight switch, and it's connector, they had a bad habit of melting on the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

You can grab a service manual for your truck from here.

 

Thanks. Yeh, couple years ago I remember the headlight switch kept heating up and partially melting. last night I changed out the five amp fuse in the cab. I changed out the switch for a new one, even though I inspected the old switch and the wiring and found no apparant damage. Still no dash lights and no tail lights. brake and turn lights are working. I let the truck run a few minutes with the switch on and felt the wires comming from the switch, they dont seem to be getting hot. I looked at the bulbs themself, they are ok. In the power distribution center under the hood there's also a 50 amp fuse for instrument panel/horn/parking lights. Im not sure if "parking lights" means tail lights, but at any rate, that fuse also looks good. The only other thing I see in the system is a small block thats attached to some of the wires comming from the switch, not sure what it is, but wondering if it has any thing to do with it.

 

well, having some trouble uploading photos...

 

Looks like a relay..... How many terminals does it have, and how many wires going to it?

Also, check where the trailer harness hits the rear wiring harness, they are known to cause some issues......

 

it has four terminals and four wires. black and yellow, black and yellow, red and pink, and black.

 

update. sort of. I notice now that if I pull the headlight switch out slowly and carefully, and get it at just the right spot about three quarters of the way out, the tail lights do come on. kind of in between positions where parking lights and full on would be. Im thinking now that I may have bought a faulty switch?

 

Sure sounds that way. Wouldn't be the first time I saw a bad part, right out of the box.