Hi all,
Working on my '81 Bronco.
Last night I went to flash someone with their highbeams on, and instead of my highbeams flashing, my headlights shut off.
I can't get them to come back on. The highbeam switch on the floor is less than a year old and the headlight switch is only a few years old.
I checked all the fuses, but they all looked good.
I also tried fiddling with the highbeam switch but it doesn't do anything.

When I got out, I noticed the dome light was dead too (but the map lights still work when I turn them on.)

Any ideas what's going on? I need to fix this immediately as I'm headed out to go backpacking in the mountains in just a few hours!

Thanks

 

The headlight switch gets power from one of the kinda-fat wires connected to the battery side of the starter solenoid. Tbhere should be 2-3 wires on the lug, they have fusible links in 'em a few inches away. Check those fusible links and, if you have a meter, verify that power is going through those wires.

The headlight switch has a built-in circuit breaker, no fuses in the fuse box have anything to do with the headlights.

Similarly, the dome light has nothing to do with the headlight circuit, that's a different problem (burned out bulb, blown fuse, broken wire, etc.).

Might search in the 80-86 forum, some of those posts (esp. by 81-F-150-Explorer) have circuit diagrams from the Ford wiring diagram manuals.

There is also a tan wire at the headlight switch that is famous for melting, might verify that's not the problem....

 

Thanks for the reply. Just got back from a week long trip. I read your post but didn't have time to thank you for it before I ran out the door.
It turns out it was the new(ish) highbeam switch on the floor. I checked for power at all the key points for the headlights and everything had 12v, so I just replaced the high beam switch and everything went back to normal.

Dome light, like you said, is a different issue. Since I noticed they were both out at the same time, I thought I'd mention it "just in case". Most likely a bad bulb or something.

Thanks again.