Last night, I went out to my 97 e-250 and the dash lights were on and the truck was off. I repeaditly started the van, turning the light switch on and off while rotating the rheostat to dim the dash lights. I ended up disconnecting the battery cable. This is the first time this has happened. Since this is a new wan to me, Has any one else had this problem and any suggestions?

 

need to pull the light switchand check the contacts on the rheostat
as a temp fix pull the fuse

 

Is this common, or a service bulletin covered issue? seems pretty weird. This van had a alarm installed (which i disconnected) and i wonder if it was tied into the lights, guess i'll find out tomorrow.

 

Found the problem, seems on cargo vans they have the harness that must come in the chateau vans with all the connectors there. Problem is the female side of the connector faces up and can catch all kinds of debris. Mine caught a small piece of metal that was acting as a jumper between a power and something that tied into the running lights/dash lights. Might be a good idea to cover those unused connectors,to keep em clean.