We have an old 1996 Ram 2500, the low beams haven't worked since we got it. We replaced the interior pull switch hoping that would fix the low beams. It was a simple plug and play swap. It never did fix the low beams, but high beams have worked fine this whole time. Last night I went to get groceries, and when I came out, the high beams had stopped working also. I had to drive home in the dark with just my ambers. I spent a long time last night trying to figure out where the fuse is, but never was able to figure it out.

Any ideas what might be causing this? I plan to check all the fuses in the cab and under the hood when it stops storming, but if you all could save me a few hours with some ideas that would be amazing.

Extra note: my grandpa - the only owner - had rewired the power windows to work when the key is not in the ignition.

 

I believe the relay to control the headlights is under the hood. You can try swapping out the relay with another one and see if that helps. When you replaced the headlight switch, did you also replace the pigtail connector that it plugs into? Many times, the pigtail connector that the headlight switch plugs into melts in the back and weakens some of the connectors that the headlight switch plugs into, which may be causing your headlight issues.

You can also check the wiring diagrams in the service manual for your truck, which you can download from this link - https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...e-manuals.html

 

I don't think the 96 uses a relay at all, not even the sport models.....

You can download the service manual from here. Wiring diagrams are in section 8W. I don't remember if the switch supplies power, or ground for the headlights.

 

Correct, no relays involved. I think Sport models didn't appear until 98 ?? In any case, fuse 6 (40A) in the PDC powers pretty much all the lighting. The light switch sends power to the multi-function switch which in turn sends power to either high or low beams. So if the high beams were working everything up to the MF switch is/was ok. Check fuse, check power before/after headlight switch, check power at MF switch and at the hi/lo outputs.

 

The quad headlights didn't appear on the sport models until 98.5, mid-cycle refresh. Previous to that, it was just an appearance package. (body color bumpers, etc.) Still just the two headlight system though.