Last night I pull on the headlight switch and no dash lights or gauge lights come on, then all the sudden they all start flickering and I can hear the headlight switch clicking on and off. With the truck running my voltage gauge was a little more than 14 v and whenever the lights would click on, the gauge would shoot down to 12.

Anyone ever have this happen? I'm assuming i just need a new headlight switch

 

Sounds to me like you have a short in the wiring somewhere. The 'clicking' you hear is the breaker in the switch doing it's job of not burning your pick-up down.

Time to start chasing wires...It could be the switch, but I doubt it.

 

the things rodents will do to your wires! When I got mine I had to re-run most of the wires and install tons of new switches because the PO left it outside and it was also a farm truck. Found my short to be a set of wires that a mouse chewed the casing off of so they were touching. Maybe the mouse ate it in my driveway, because I drove it home with aal the lights one month and the next month they were shorted. Then again, the drivers door switch for the dome light was stuck in the off position and shorting as well. Stupid racoons. And possums. And mice. And squirels. And chipmunks. And rats.

Have fun with that electricl issue!!

 

I agree with a short. Mine did this exact same thing and it was that one of the wires to a front parking light had rubbed through and the bare wire was rubbing against the metal on the core support. When it would rub the lights would flicker and the headlight switch would make noise.

 

I've been tracing wires and can't find anything broken or exposed.

@jsutton, would it flicker even when sitting perfectly still, no wires bouncing around or anything?

Even with the truck parked sitting still, it still flickers and clicks. Replaced the headlight switch just because and the problem remains.

 

Just realized the tail lights aren't coming on when I pull the switch, brake lights are fine.

 

Is your voltage regulator mounted/grounded to clean bare sheet metal?

 

What year model are we talking about? If it's pre-77 you could have a wire shorting in the steering column. There isn't much room for the wiring in there and if it's not installed correctly and can wear and cause a short. Are the turn signals working? If not, I'd put my money on a short in the turn signal switch.

If you haven't replace a turn signal switch in a pre-77, come back and ask directions BEFORE you start pulling wires. There's an easy way and a hard way to do this. Easy is MUCH better. LOL

 

Yes that's how I found it. With the lights on I could hear it behind the blinker/parking light making a funny noise (sparking type noise). I pulled the light out and there was the bare wire that was rubbing on the core support.