Hey guys,

My 1987 TurboII keeps burning up the light switches. Headlights come on and turn off just fine its just the accessories, side markers, and tail lights (when not depressed) do not work. I replaced it the first time and the light switch looked burned as so...





Tonight it started the same signs as when it happened the first time. Flickering for a bit then finally going out.

I am going to post up in the for sale section to get another one... but I want to know if anyone else has had this problem and what they did to stop it from happening repeatedly. Thanks for your time.

-Allen

 

I would say you either have a bad contact... or a short in the sytem if it's a bad contact, you can bend the terminals just a little bit so that they make better contact... if it's a short, then you will need to fix the short

a circuit tester like this is your friend also known as a test probe

 

That second pin is where the power for the white/green wire feeds pwr to the switch.

Have you tried to swap out the light switch harness at the same time you remove and replace the switch? Try that out. Change both out at the same time.

I wonder why the ILLUM fuse never seems to pop when ya'll have problems like this. I've no idea why.

 

Did you replace the harness as well as the switch?

If not, that is your problem.

 

No, I didn't replace the harness. When it happened the first time I figured it was just the light switch. Now that its the second time happening I will go back and replace the harness. I wonder if it has a short in it or something that would make it keep doing this.

I'll try and dig that up and replace both at the same time. Thanks for the input guys!

 

Gotta replace both... using a good switch with a previously smoked harness will result in the good switch burning up too

 

same thing happened to my friend, it was the harness as stated above.

on a non tech note, i can't believe icemark changed his avatar, no more samurai jack!

 

It is more a jab at some of the people that have been complaining that the mods are bing enforcers instead of moderators... so I changed my Avatar to the baddest enforcers I know in the virtual world.

 

haha i figured it was something along those lines, good choice.

 

Rotarybeat1287, that is definitely a short. I had the exact same problem and went through two replacement light switches before finally looking for the broken wire.

Remove the hood around the gauge cluster to access the tight bundle of wires on the right. Using bad light switch, follow the wire ordinarily connected to that burned-out pin to find the bad connection causing the short.

The copper usually bursts through the plastic shielding, but if not you're going to have to find it by looking for a "soft"spot in the wire. Once you do, you should solder the wires together solidly, then wrap it up with electrical tape.

Good luck!

 

to BASTARD, i totally disagree with test probes. i do sound system installs, and am certified too. i hate test probes, they dont prove **** except that there is power at a certain point. at no point is a test probe going to tell you why your circuits keep burning up.
if you want to check for current flow, thats cool. but other than that, a VMM is the best way to go, at least then you can do voltage sweep tests and possibly track down shorts or a missing fuse. hell, might even tell you when its a good idea to put in a fuse.
just my 2cents

peace

 

So. If we have a dead short, why does the ILLUM fuse not blow out? I mean there is enough heat to melt a plug as shown in the pictures. If it's a short in the wire, and it would be the white/green in that second pin, why not piggyback in a new wire in place of the white/green to fix the problem.

 

As Hailers mentioned, if it is a dead short it will blow the fuse. A dead short would be a bare wire hitting metal. A dead short would be a cut wire hitting metal (ground). A dead short would be a wire scraped through the plastic to metal. A dead short would be too many things on the circuit (such as if he wired extra lights in). An lowly 8.25 amp draw will blow the fuse.

This is not a dead short.

This is a bad light switch and light switch harness. If the light switch burns, you need to replace both.

Don't get why this is not being understood by some people

 

Hmm, maybe you don't know how to use it.. I really don't know of any tools that will tell you the cause of a short, but I personly have found the short in a minimal amount of time with the use of the test probe and know a bunch of mechanics that all swear by them... dollar for dollar you can't get a better tool

 

Hold on guys, I had a short on my cigarette lighter illumination wire (due to my own poor wiring when I didn't know what I was doing) that repeatedly burned up headlight switches and NEVER blew a fuse.

Check all aftermarket wiring, especially behind the stereo. That's the red/green wire I believe.

 

hmm, how did you fix that issue w/ the cigarette lighter light and it messing up your other ****?

mine works... the lighter illumination that is. So I'm not sure if thats it.