Anybody got the pin out for the headlight switch. I have a 1997 Ford F250HD. this is my problem. with the headlight switch all the way out i only have headlights with no parking lights,but if i work the switch in and out a little i can get them to come on. so i figure its a bad switch. get the new one from NAPA and it works with the switch all the way out no parking lights on the first click out. take that one back for a new one and i am back to where i worse off with this one, on parking lights at all.
broke the NAPA one taking the connector off of it so i eat the price of the cheap on and go to Ford.
The ford one gets me back to the start with just headlights and no parking lights but if i work it in a little i get both.......

Tested the connector. i found the hot and the parking light wire, put a ameter across them without the switch attatched and the parking lights came on drawing about 5.8 amps, did the same to the healight circuit and it was about 9.

now going to the switch i was able to tone out the healight portion of the switch but the parking lights wouldnt tone out unless i pushed the **** in a little.

call the dealer and explained it to him and he said he would order me a new on for tomorrow. a short while later the parts mangager called and said he wanted me to take it to a mechanic to verify its a bad switch, after a long pause from me i explained to him what i did. i finally conviced him that it was a bad switch.

just wanted to be sure with what i did, beings i have been up since about 3pm yesterday.
did i miss something? Dont care if i make a *** of myself, just want the truck fixed
does anyone have a pin out of this so i may show him what i mean tommorow and that i can test the new one before i leave the dealer.

thanks.

Ken

 

Your problem is not a bad switch. The power for the parking lights comes into the switch on a tan/white wire. The headlight power comes in on a different wire. There are several sections to this switch. I bet if you check the tan/white wire, it does not have power. It should.

What you are doing is putting the switch into a "mid" position, which is crossing up the contacts inside, and the headlight power is powering the park lights. If you get the tan/white wire powered up, then it will work normally.

The tan/white wire has it's own fuse in the fuse box (running lights, taillights fuse). Check that first. If the fuse is ok, then follow the tan/white up from the headlight switch connnector. It has been known to melt in two.

 

Have never seen a new switch from ford bad before . Did you check new switch against your original switch that was in the truck , there is a chance it's the wrong one . Check the side where it plugs in ) the other possible problem ( common ) is the wiring plug connecter is burnt from bad connections inside for the individual wires , ford can get you the parts if you need them .

 

I didnt have power to that wire. where does this wire originate from?

thanks,
Ken

 

well its fixed
thanks for you help, i should have figured that the headlights where seperate from the parking lights.
traced the wire to the fuse panel at the bottom of the dash and found the fuse at the very top that was hidden from view unless you really got down to look,thought i had checked all of the fuses with my test light but missed the one the mattered most.
this is the second time that this site has helped me out of a jam.
first time was when my tranny was acting up, changed out the speed sensor in the rear but kept pulling codes for open vss sensor. read here that a guy cleaned the contacts on the back of the guauge cluster and it fixed the problem.it worked for me too

well thanks again,

Ken