Frying Light Switches

[ironheart1]

Heya, another quick question -

I've been having problems with my headlight flickering and stuff for a while, and at times I've been able to smell burning. Now, my headlights don't come on at all, so I removed the switch only to see that the grey connector is cooked and various terminals on the switch are different colors (copper red and blue, not sure if that's normal). One of the wires leading to the grey headlamp connector is mildly frayed. My corner lamps come on, but my headlamps and fog lights do not work any more.

Someone in my crew just bought an '89 LX 5.0 and he needs to do a lot of work to it to get it ready to drive, so I went to borrow his light switch. His grey connector is also cooked.

Is frying these light switches normal? Also, what should I replace? Can I tape off that errant frayed wire and just replaced the switch?

 

[88STANGCONVERT]

I have an GT and a problem we have is that the sire for the fog lights to the switch is too small gauge and frys the switch. I changed this around with a relay and installed a new grey connector and now no smell of burning elect. and everything works great. I am not sure if this helps, especially for the LX but I just thought I would throw this out to ya.
Good Luck!

 

[ironheart1]

Ok, I bought myself a new switch today and installed it, with no luck at all.

I had a feeling it had something to do with the foglights. Now, you replaced the whole wire with a large gauge section or just a section of it (I would hate to have to take the friggin dash apart)

Also, was that grey connector difficult to install? Remember - I'm a complete idiot with wiring and stuff.

 

[bmorrisj]

you need to wire a relay in with the fog lights so the wiring wont cook, and you probably also fried your multi function switch (turn signal)....i just replaced mine...i guess my car had fogs on before i bought it; wires melted and the headlights were wired to a switch.... the high beams didnt work unless i held the stick...hmm...my old light switch works fine, after i changed the multi function switch everything works perfectly, and i ****** out all that extra wiring from under the dash...

 

[jrichker]

See http://www.corral.net/tech/maintenance/foglights.html for help

 

[Gilgaretch]

Headlight rewiring

Heya all.. I'd been having trouble with my high-beams since I bought my 87 GT, and the plastic 4-pin connector to the multi-func switch was already crispy and black at that point.. Now my headlights have quit working entirely. I read through the article over at the Corral, but frankly I'm figuring that while I'm at it I might as well break the wiring for the lowbeams and highbeams out of the light switch and multi-func too. The cost for two more relays is nominal....

Would someone mind shooting devil's advocate at me on this? I'm gonna attach the wiring diagram I put together as my roadmap for rebuilding the system. A buddy just pointed out that I might as well use some of the empty slots in the fuse box rather than put in a new distrobution block - I'll probably go that way, unless someone has a good suggestion contrary..

Basically I'm just lookin for whats wrong with this idea. I figure asking for criticism on a forum is like waving a bone in front of a dog, right? *g*

 

[noslow5_0]

yup mine did the same thing... apparently this has been a problem for others before... mine was cause a wire for the accessory lights was grounding out on the e brake.... there is even a kit that comes with everything to repair it from late model restoration...

 

[five 0 low]

here

 

[Gilgaretch]

Good image

Thank you for the diagram...it's helpful!

If you have the time though, I'm not sure that I understand a couple things on it...

What is the 14290/14401 thing that I see inline with the various lighting systems as well as the horns?

(Pls forgive me, haven't looked at them on wiring diagram yet) Are the horns currently passing full current through the switch, or are they on that solenoid stock?

Are you reconnecting the foglamp switch to the parking lights so that you can run the foglights independant of the headlights?

Thanks!

 

[BStevens]

Wow. I'm not alone. Same thing happened to my 89 GT before I sold it. hehe

 

[HISSIN50]

Gilgaretch, your set up looks fine to me. i have the same deal (relay on highs, relay on lows, relay on fogs). works fine, as far as im concerned. i chose to cut the stock lighting wires in the engine bay, so that power to the bulbs would be run through a shorter stretch of wiring. i thought about ditching the stock wiring and running my own (perhaps more efficiency and wattage reaching the bulbs, but did not).

i think it works great. i was close to the battery, so that made sourcing amped power for the relays easy.
of course, there is more chance of relay failure in the engine compartment, but i still would keep it like this. it would be easy for me to toss a new relay in, were i to need to.
some of the write ups have people burying the relay behind the headlight switch. i dont want to rip that out in the event of a failure (at night on the side of the road) to pop a new relay in, or bridge the common and normally open terminals....

im no TMoss, but your set up should work. good luck.