Hi there!

I removed my dash to remove the AC heater core and some other stuff. When i assembled it (dash) i had an issue with the fuse to my tail light. As soon as i pull the headlight switch, the fuse blows. I tried to do some research, and i did find out this: When i connected the black wire going to the lower middle pin on the headlight switch, the fuse to the tail lights pops.


This fuse is "connected" to the switch via an orange wire. To my understanding, the black wire connected to this pin is for the dash lights - can anyone confirm this?




I did also notice on the back of my fusebox i thing one wire is missing. The only wire i can see is a grey one. In the manual it says that this position on the back is for "LAMPS" - but i followed the grey wire and it only goes to the rear windshield heater switch. Anyone have any idea what is going on?

 

That's some serious sodomy right there. Might want to go to the junkyard and get the right HL sw connector out of a car. Just about any GM car of the same age should do. Splice it onto your wiring, using solder & heatshrink. With all that nastification and butchery, identifying the wires won't be exactly foolproof.

The problem would seem to be with your HL sw wiring, not the fusebox.

A black wire going to that sw is ground. Goes to that terminal right by your thumb in the photo, that's connected to the "case" of the sw. Your photo shows 2 wires that might be black; not sure which one that would be.

White is the interior lights. Goes to the terminal nearest the dimmer sw, lower right in the sw photo.

Red is batt. Goes to pin 1 right above the int light pin, that has the small brass strip with 2 internal contacts going to it.

Dk grn is the dash lights. Pin 2. Not sure what that other piece of wire hanging off of there is all about.

Yellow is the HL. Pin 6.

Org is power for the TL from the fuse. Pin 5.

Should be a brn for the tail & park lights. Pin 4. Can't be sure about that one; might be that black wire, if you follow it back and it's spliced to a brown. Or, might be that lighter black one, might be brown instead of black. Hard to tell for sure.

Nothing goes to pin 3.

Grey, in general, is usually dash lights. Would make sense for it to go to the defroster switch: it'd for backlighting the switch. Might plug into a place in the fusebox labelled accordingly. If I were the guessing kind I'd guess it might go either in hole L in the diagram or the one you have the rect around in the photo. Might only fit in one or the other, looks like the connector is asymmetrical, to "key" it somehow. Since that's an option, all cars don't have it; comes with its own separate harness; no doubt that's how it gets its light power.

 

I am not a fan of soldered connections for most Automotive Applications, but it is far better than half of the Splicing Garbage that is available.

Replacement Connectors, as well as Pigtails are still available:
ACDelco PT1930

 

This would also be a good time to make a sub-Harness that will incorporate Relays.
The Switch would only trigger the Relays and not Power the Lights.

 

Can you please tell me more about this? What kind of relays? Why? And HOW?

Thanks..

 

All you need to know is how a SPST Relay works.

This would be done so that the Headlamp Switch can never over-heat.

 

Dani, a relay uses a small (low) current to control a large (higher) current.

In this case, your headlamp switch has all of the current for the headlamps flowing through it. That makes the contact points in the switch wear, and eventually the switch will fail. Adding a relay and some wiring to the circuit will allow you to use a much lower current through the factory switch to activate the relay, which will flow the higher current needed for the lamps.

vorteciroc is referencing an Single Pole Single Throw (SPST) relay, which is a simple relay, and all you might need for this sort of upgrade. The short video below will give you some idea of how they work (SPST described first).

 

Thanks guys!