No dash or tail lights - ?

Donut John · 01-04-2007, 07:59 AM

I have an '88 C1500 short bed step side with about 100,000 miles. Last night the dash and tail lights quit. I have brake lights and turn signals. No blown fuse either. The lights worked and then I stopped to get parts, came back and no lights. Where do I begin to look? No parking lights either, dimmer still turns on cab light. Help!

mrjohnwayne · 01-04-2007, 03:10 PM

i'd start with the light switch itself.

75K30 · 01-04-2007, 06:11 PM

Do the ctsy lights turn on when the doors are open. Probably not. There are actually three fuses that could be bad. The GA fuse (probably not this one), the park fuse, (you have already checked this one) then the ctsy fuse. This is a 20A fuse located just above the park fuse. There is also a possibility that the orange wire from the load side of the fuse "park" 20A is bad. This feeds the light switch, and is responsible for lighting up the instrument cluster, running lights, and ctsy lights.
mrjohnwayne has a pretty good idea with the light switch, the red wire is 12vdc, while the whit wire is zerovdc, or the minus side of 12vdc., green should show 12vdc when the switch is turned on, as well as the brown wire (this one goes to the parking lights, the orange one is hot all of the time, and the black one will go to ground, the yellow wire at the very bottom goes to the beam select switch, and would also appear to be hot all of the time. I would not concern yourself too much with this one as your headlights seem yo be operational.
If you need a copy of the schematics of this, let me know, and I can e-mail them to you. Hope this gets you on your way. Electrical problems can really be a bummer, good luck, and happy troubleshooting.

Donut John · 01-05-2007, 11:00 PM

Thank you all! It wuz the switch. The parking light switch is old, tired, dirty and in need of a cleaning or replacement. I can get it to come on by slowly moving the switch to on. Can they be cleaned or is there a later model switch I can substitute?

01-04-2007, 07:59 AM	#1
Donut John Full Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 18	No dash or tail lights - ? I have an '88 C1500 short bed step side with about 100,000 miles. Last night the dash and tail lights quit. I have brake lights and turn signals. No blown fuse either. The lights worked and then I stopped to get parts, came back and no lights. Where do I begin to look? No parking lights either, dimmer still turns on cab light. Help!

01-04-2007, 03:10 PM	#2
mrjohnwayne Moderator Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 3,112	i'd start with the light switch itself. __________________ John Wayne 2000 F-350 7.3L Powerstroke 4x4

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01-04-2007, 06:11 PM	#3
75K30 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 2,537	Do the ctsy lights turn on when the doors are open. Probably not. There are actually three fuses that could be bad. The GA fuse (probably not this one), the park fuse, (you have already checked this one) then the ctsy fuse. This is a 20A fuse located just above the park fuse. There is also a possibility that the orange wire from the load side of the fuse "park" 20A is bad. This feeds the light switch, and is responsible for lighting up the instrument cluster, running lights, and ctsy lights. mrjohnwayne has a pretty good idea with the light switch, the red wire is 12vdc, while the whit wire is zerovdc, or the minus side of 12vdc., green should show 12vdc when the switch is turned on, as well as the brown wire (this one goes to the parking lights, the orange one is hot all of the time, and the black one will go to ground, the yellow wire at the very bottom goes to the beam select switch, and would also appear to be hot all of the time. I would not concern yourself too much with this one as your headlights seem yo be operational. If you need a copy of the schematics of this, let me know, and I can e-mail them to you. Hope this gets you on your way. Electrical problems can really be a bummer, good luck, and happy troubleshooting.

01-05-2007, 11:00 PM	#4
Donut John Full Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 18	Thank you all! It wuz the switch. The parking light switch is old, tired, dirty and in need of a cleaning or replacement. I can get it to come on by slowly moving the switch to on. Can they be cleaned or is there a later model switch I can substitute?