I have scoured these and other forums for help with this. I have a 1997 Explorer XLT. The high beam have not worked since I got it and now living in Virginia they are needed to pass inspection. When turned on (pushed forward) lights go out, high beam indicator comes on. When flash to pass (pulled back) lows stay on and indicator comes on. It does not have auto lamps.

What I have done:
Replaced MFS
Verified power from GRY/ORG wire on MFS when turning high beams on.
Verified power across fuse #33 when switch turned on.
Had bulbs tested, Good.
No power on high beam wire at the bulb socket.

The only thing I have not checked is what several people have referred to as a "splice" I think someone referred to it as S111? does anyone know where this is physically located or am I going to have to start the chore of tracing the wires?

Thanks in advance.

 

If you have power thru fuse 33 (high beams) you should have power headed toward the lights ? I dont think there is anything after the fuse before the light. Are you sure you have a good ground on the socket. Sometimes the low beam tries to use the high beam wire as a ground, and when you turn on the HIGH, there is no ground seen. I think i would follow the wire out of 33 toward the lights.

 

I have a drawing for a 2002 EXP... S111 is a junction of the wire out of fuse 33 to both head lights, and the day time running light box. It does not show a location for the splice...Somewhere inside the harness. THe output of fuse 33 goes directly thru the splice to the headlights high beam. If you have power out of 33, you could put a jumper wire to the headlights for temp or permanent instead of cutting open the harness. Again, this assumes you have a good ground.

 

What's interesting about S111 is that same splice is where the dash indicator is sourced as well. The factory service manual lists S111 as being 100 mm from T/O for G101. I'm not sure what "T/O" stands for. Ground G101 also does not appear on the diagram for the headlamps so I'm not terribly sure where that ground connection is at. G100 and G102 are the grounds for the left and right headlights respectively but I'm not sure if that means anything. You could try following the Light Green/Black wires from each of the headlights toward the cabin. Where they meet is S111.

-Rod

 

"T/O" stands for take-out. It's where a group of wires come out of the wire bundle. So, in this instance, S111 will be about 4 inches from where the G101 ground wires come out of the bundle

I just chased down these grounds last weekend. Ground 101 is forward of the battery, outboard of the upper corner of the radiator. If you're not a giant, you can get to it without removing the battery. Ground 100 is outboard of the battery on the inner fender (if that's the right term). Again, you can get to this one without removing the battery if you're hands aren't huge. Ground 102 is on the opposite side of Ground 100 (roughly) on the passenger side inner fender.

How did you check for power at the headlight socket? If you measured between the two pins on the connector, then it's possible that power is there and the grounds are bad. If you connected the DVM from the power pin to the battery negative or other ground and got no power, then you really have no power there assuming you connected to a good ground.

Everything upstream of the splice is common to both left and right headlights, so it seems like the problem would be somewhere up to and including the splice (having two bad grounds doesn't seem so likely although not impossible). But, as shorod was alluding, if the splice is bad, it's odd that the indicator still works. But, if the problem were upstream of the splice and not at the splice, then the indicator wouldn't work in addition to the headlights not working. So, it seems like the splice is the problem unless there are TWO failures downstream of the splice. I hope that makes sense and sorry for rambling. It would be easier to visualize if you had the schematic.

The above assumes that a '97 is similar to a '98.

 

The diagrams for my 97 show the same as mikeman mentioned, and as he said power to the splice is good since the high beam indicator lights up.

You'll find 3 LG/BK wires at the splice from the fuse & the 2 headlights. GY/W is from the high beam indicator.

Does'nt matter in this situation, but the high & low beam filaments use the same common ground. If the low or high beams work the ground is not the problem.

 

I suspected the abbrev. was something like that, but was confused since G101 does not show up anywhere on the diagram or in the "Associated Grounds" list. I wasn't thinking about the bundle though and how many other circuits might be in the harness. Thanks for clarifying.

See below. I made the assumptions that this Explorer does not have Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) or Autolamps. The schematics for each are called out separately in the Ford Factory Service Manual, which is where the below diagram was sourced.

Also, 87 XLT's point of the common ground for low and high beam is a very good one. All these comments pretty much confirm if there really is no power to the light green/black wire at the headlight socket, the issue has to be between the splice and the socket. The possible caveat to this is if there is a poor connection somewhere upstream that allows enough current to flow to light the indicator (probably at reduced brightness) but not enough to light the high beam filaments.

-Rod

 

As they say a picture/FACTORY wiring diagram really is worth a 1,000 words. Thanks for posting it Rod

 

I want to thank everyone for your input. The suggestions and diagrams got my mind grinding and I realized that I saw the right headlight's ground was cut and connected to the frame.

So I checked the left one and the same wire had been cut. Realizing that both circuits use the same ground I disconnected the ground on the right side and turn the lights on. The low beams came on, meaning it wasn't the ground.

I realized they must be the high beam wires, I found the other ends of the wires and reconnected them and they now work.

This is not the first cut wire problem I've encountered since I bought this vehicle 2 years ago, and there are several more wire that I can see and don't know what they go to yet. I feel bad for the previous owner who felt they had to resort to wire cutting as a solution.

 

Thank you for posting what you found, and congrats on getting the lights working. That is a bummer there are so many cut wires. This didn't happen to be a former bank repossession vehicle, did it?

-Rod

 

No, it was a trade-in vehicle. I was also able to use this wire cutting discovery to fix the horn and the third tail light. Non of these were a problem when I bought it because I got it in Florida where there are no inspections, and moved to Virginia six months later to find that all these "little" problems meant no inspection...

 

And another problem bites the dust. Glad to hear you got it figured out.