I'm trying to figure out why my headlights won't turn on. Brake lights work and I keep blowing my wiper fuse.

I ended up taking the dash apart and found some wires unplugged.

 

also noticed this rod that looks as if it connects to the turn signal lever to some white switch under the dash.

 

Bump

 

Well, I can say for sure that rod connects to that switch. That switch is your high beam switch. It is connected through the turn signal indicator because when you push it towards you, is pushes that rod down the column to the switch.

There is a plastic housing (might be two pieces, and if it is you need both) that goes over the turn signal section that covers the top piece of that rod. However, there is also a plastic piece that rides on the front of the rod and goes further up into the steering wheel. If you don't have all of those pieces, you won't be able to get that rod functioning normally. The good news is that you can put everything into place (all the plastic housing pieces and the metal rod to plastic clip piece) without taking anything else off.

Now, if you have those parts and put everything back together, it still won't fix your lights issues. You need your lights working before the brights will work.



I didn't happen to check if you had a firebird or camaro, and I'm not sure if the wiring for the headlights is different between the two. The switch you have that says "interior" hi" "lo" and "panel" is NOT in my 91 camaro, or my buddies 88 camaro so I'm not sure what that goes to.

I will say that the big black harness does look like the harness that plugs into the headlight switch though. I'm not sure what the whiteish-clearish harness goes to or the other two loose wires however. They (as in the loose wires) POSSIBLY could go to the big squarish black harness, and just came undone. I know my friends headlight switch had two of the wires come out of the plastic piece, and I had to shove them back into position. I'm thinking that's especially possible for that pink/black wire and the blue wire. I could be wrong on that though! But, I do think that black piece goes to your headlight switch

As for the location of the headlight switch, the switch should be up on the top left portion of the dash. Its basically way up underneath your dash almost all the way to the top and back. In my car, my headlight switch is a **** that I pull out on the top left of the dash. This **** has a rod that connects to the switch itself.

It may help to know what year and model car you have to better reference what switch you may have and wiring colors.
EDIT: I see in your signature it says 89 bird so I'm assuming this is the car you are having the issues with in your post. I don't know if they have a different headlight switch than the camaros unfortunately.

 

Dying my engine swap I removed all the original engine wiring including the fusable links. Could this be the reason I've got no lights now??

 

Hmm I can't say I'm an expert when it comes to all the wiring for these cars.

Potentially some of the fusible links may have been in the circuit for the lights.

Did you have the car running before the engine swap? Were the lights working before then?

If so, then I would definitely look into some of that wiring, especially the fusible links.

 

just visited the junkyard and looking at another thirdgen firebird I found the same harness completely unplugged. Any ideas?

 

Hmm, that black connector looks like it has a different pinout than the one on yours so it may be a different connector.

However, looking back at yours and the other picture, it looks as if those harnesses are coming from the center of where the instrument cluster would be.

Did you check to see if you have a headlight switch in the top left corner up under your dash? If not, I would try to look there and see 1) if it's there and 2) if it's plugged in.

As for that wiring you found on the camaro, and potentially the same wiring in your car, I'm not really too sure what it may be. I can try and take a look at my car and see if I can find something similar also. If I had to guess, I would think it may be the harness for a factory security system that was only installed in "higher end" options. Either that or maybe the wiring harness to some factory cruise control computer.

I have neither on my car, so if that's what it is, then I would have that loose connector also.

 

Both are firebirds. I do have the Headlight switch at the left corner of the dash and it is plugged in.

 

bump can anyone tell me if the fusable links are needed for a carb swap? I've got a multi meter-can anyone point me in the right direction of what I should be checking?

 

bump

 

AustinThirdgen.org has all the wiring diagrams for your car. Check them out and see if you removed the headlight wiring along with the engine harness. I believe some of the body wiring (headlights, fans and maybe more) are in the connector with the engine harness. GL!