I have a 1993 Ranger, 4.0L 4X4 STX with about 180,000 miles on it. A couple weeks ago, while driving home from work at night, the headlights went out, then back on... it did this a couple times then continued to work fine. I had the high beams on at the time, and thought maybe it had something to do with that.

The next time while driving with the high beams on about a week or so later it did it again. This time the 'off-and-on' toggling lasted a litte longer. I turned off the high beams and it continued to do it a few more times until I cycled the actual head light switch. After that it was fine.

Last night on the way home, I did NOT have the hight beams on for fear of this happening again and the same problem appeared. This time it lasted even longer than the 2nd time. I pulled off the road and cycled everything (headlight switch, hi-lo beams, etc.) and sat there for a few minutes. The problem stopped and I made it back home with no issues.

I have not checked anything yet, but plan on looking into it tonight and definitely this weekend.

My first thoughts are that it is a flaky contact somewhere either in the headlight switch, hi-lo beam switch, or maybe in the fusebox. If there is a little corrosion on a contact I would think it might cause something like this, but I suppose it could also be a bad wire or ground somewhere. I just dont know why it would be so intermittent.

Has anyone else seen any similar problems? Any advice or ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I have had an on/off problem with my 79 bronco, it was the switch.

 

Welcome to FTE!!!

Sounds like your on the right track.

 

I had that problem with my Bronco II it was the multi function switch.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. Hopefully its either the headlight switch or the multifunction switch. I hate trying to track down wiring problems if its not just one of those two items.

Thanks again!