I've been at this headlight switch for quite awhile and I think I have a pretty good idea what the problem is but I am having some trouble confirming. First, the problem - headlights come on, no tail lights, no side markers, no dash lights.

I started by jumping power (red wire) to the blue wire (front lights on), then to browns (tail and side markers on). I then thought it was the switch so i ordered a new one. No luck. I think it would help to understand the power sources in the connector. I have a wiring diagram, but some of this was counterintuitive to me. After opening up the switch to check the connections all I can figure is that the brown wires are to be energized from the orange and the green is on it's own for the dash lights, and that the orange should energize them with the switch in position 1. I have a continuity problem with the orange wire, could be that it is disconnected somewhere cause the fuse is good.

Anyone confirm I should have 3 independently running circuits in the switch/connector? Red, orange and green?

Thanks,
Dan

 

no one??

 

The red is for headlights only.
The orange which is hot all the time feeds the parking lights through the
switch and the brown wire. The orange also feeds the dark green through the rheostat.
http://www.europeancorvette.com/phot...77/Page004.jpg
http://www.europeancorvette.com/phot...77/Page012.jpg

 

I agree with bruisers post.


Sounds as if the TAIL light fuse is blown. Check both sides of the TAIL fuse to see if its hot.
question- is the orange hot ? -the orange is made hot through the taillight fuse.
you did some jumpering with the red , now do the same jumpering with the orange , you should get the same results IF the orange is hot.

question - is the headlight problem the only electrical issue your having ?
is both sides of your CLK/LTR_CTSY light fuse hot ?
is both sides of your STOP_HAZ fuse hot ?

 

Hi guys, great explanations.

My fuses are all good and hot. The orange wire, which is supposed to be hot, is not. It also does not pass a continuity test from the headlight swotch to the fuse block so it must have disconnected from one of the connectors between the fuse block and the switch connector, or from the fuse block itself. Thanks for the confirmation. I will rerun the orange wire (or fix the problem) and I think we are good to go on the tail lights.

Regarding other electrical issues:
All fuses are hot, so I'm good there. I do not have any dash lights, they went out one day last summer and I've been taking this one problem at a time. I've suspected a bad ground on the dash lights but in light of Bruisers explanation it seems that when I power orange I should get power to green and then my dash lights should come on. I will do more investigating this weekend. The gauges and clock all work. Hazards are functional as well. I think that's it for electrical issues for the moment. Once those dash lights are fixed it's smooth sailing! (yeah right)

Bruiser, those are slick wiring diagrams. You might also check out the ones from Dr Rebuild. I bought these awhile back and they picture the wires in their original colors and the connectors themselves as well- helpful to me for identifying an otherwise spaghetti bowl of wires vs stuff that Bubba left in there. I couldn't find anything on the headlight switch anywhere however, so these explanations are very helpful.

 

Just make sure even though the Tail fuse is good that it is making contact in the right side fuse holder. If the contact the fuse snaps into is corroded the orange will be dead. The right contact is the start of the orange .
Once you make the orange hot the dash lights will hopefully work.