1986 Ford Ranger 2.3 / EFI
4 Cylinder / 5-Speed

'86 Ranger, Interior dome light turns off, when headlights pulled on, but there are no headlights...Then Dome light turns on, when headlight **** is turned off.... and stays ON until I disconnect the battery...weird

This to me seem very weird, or it's a case of ...."MY BAD".
Unless I forgot to turn down my interior light yesterday after going to the local store, and without noticing the light left on when I exited and locked the car (it was daytime, so I did not notice) I must have drained the battery.

First thing tonight, I wanted to go to the post office, I noticed the Interior light was on, but dimly lit, so I tried to turn it down to the off position on my light pull ****, but instead, when I pulled my headlights on, the light interior dome lights goes OFF.

I opened my hood, moved the battery cables around and noticed the interior light was getting brighter than before, so I thought, Ha Ha!.... The power is back, so when I tried to start the engine, everything went dead, except for the dome light again.

Is it only me who thinks this is totally weird, when I pull the headlights **** to ON, the dome light goes OFF, when I push headlights IN, then dome light goes ON! I've tried turning the dome light to the OFF position, but as long as the battery cables are connected, the dome light STAYS ON, and I can not turn it off, unless like i said, i disconnect the battery cables. Could I have a DEAD battery, or an electrical short that causes this?

Please restore any sense of sanity. it does not turn over or anything, but the dome light remains on all the time. Thank you!

 

You may have a defective headlight switch. A cheap test would be to go to a salvage yard and pick up a used switch and replace your current one. Give it a try.

 

Def a headlight switch, They are less than $15 at the autoparts store.