About a year ago my headlights were giving me hell with a similar issue. I changed the headlight switch and it was a no go, turns out the battery to body grounds were missing, added that and it helped somewhat. Ended up being the headlight plug/pigtails. They weren't melted or anything just old and rusty/corroded. I changed them out and they've been working like a champ ever since!

If I remember correctly the headlight harness does ground to the fender. I want to say it's two black wires in the same connector.

 

Just get/make a relay harness and be done with it. It has its own main ground wires for the bulbs. You'll have brighter light, more options for high-current bulbs, and no risk of melting down your headlight switch/connector. As said above, it's how the truck should have been configured in the first place.

 

I'm contemplating it now. ugh

 

See if you have room to mount a RTRM panel anywhere, either inner fender or on the fender itself. I'm glad I went all out and did it nicely. It only took an evening after work to get the box wires up and a Saturday to install and make up the wiring, most of which was figuring out where to mount it, moving other crap out of the way, cleaning up PO messes, and figuring how to run the wiring to be neat and tidy.

I used this one: 15303-2-2-4 It's only 4.5"x3.5"x4.5" LxWxD installed with brackets.

 

What is up with those belts on your alternator? They look... different.

 

Not sure what you mean, it's an off the shelf 130 amp 3g. Bolts hold the case halves together.

 

Just an older design, I see that style all the time on tractors and such

 

Oh, belts not bolts... Just a normal vbelt setup with low mount vacuum pump. I've never owned anything with serpentine belts, but I don't like them with auto tensioners as they seem to fail frequently whereas I've never had problems with belt life or tension using any vbelt system. I prefer to keep complexity to a minimum.

 

The groove on the pulley for the vacuum pump is also smaller, so it takes a smaller belt, which is why they always look funky, only time I've seen a vbelt pulley wear out is on a tractor where the dust/derbis has hell on everything. Seen one cut in half, clean as a whistle too.

I swear by vbelts. Never had any issues either

 

I thought he was asking about the exterior of the belts...why they have all those groves on them. Most are smooth on the outside. Brand?

 

Y'all are gushing about v-belts and I'm just thinking about how much space is in that truck engine bay.

I'm at the point right now that I might rig up a relay panel underneath the driver-side battery tray, where I could reach it from with the grill removed, putting my hand thru the blinker light housing hole. And that's the most accessible place I can think of right now. ugh.

 

Yeah, exactly. It almost looks like it was upside down, but V-belts are hard to install upside down(unless they are worn quite badly).

 

Sounds like we need to custom fab you a truck nose/cab to a van body

 

My friend has a 60-something Corvair van. It has the weirdest v-belt setup.

 

ribbed V belts. back in the day they were very popular in industrial and heave abuse situations.