Dakota headlight issue

[yodaman1151]

ok so the other night i got in my dakota to go somewhere and my instrument panel didn't light up. i figured it was the fuses or switch. checked fuses, all seemed fine. replaced the switch and no fix, ordered another switch and same thing. some of the wires were crispy but not too bad so i replaced the bad parts to see if that was the issue... no result. now the way it is is that if i pull it to the first notch (running lights) nothing happens, second notch (headlights and running lights) i get headlights only. if i push it in slightly from the second notch the headlights turn off and i get the running and instrument lights back.... can figure out what it is since i replaced the switch twice and still get the same result as the stock switch...

update... i took a piece of wire and my multimeter, found the hot wires and started jumping them to the "cold" ones with the wire. all the circuits work... yes all of them and the wierd part is that i went to another parts store and got yet a third switch and same deal... so lets recap, in the first notch i get nothing, second notch i get headlights, inbetween the two i get running and instrument panel... all circuits are good, all fuses are good, 3 switches and still the same issue...

if i had a short i wouldn't have been able to jump the circuits and have each one work properly, unless its in the switch and yet what are the odds 3 new switches were bad from manufacturer? i'm so lost as to what it could be.

the guy from my work (autozone) noticed that the common point in all 4 switches is the knob and stick, now if the stick were used as a conductor and for some reason it's not making contact somewhere then yeah thats a possiblity so i'm gonna pick one or two up from the junkyard and maybe a switch to pull apart to see just how it works

 

[m8r8j]

im such a dick...........................







MOPAR SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[yodaman1151]

wow very helpful dude...

 

[MagnaV30]

Perhaps the connector pin where it plugs into the switch is broken / loose / whatever,

 

[Onebadezgo]

You prob already thought of this but, Does it have a dimming switch or is that what you were just talking about, if not thats what id check

 

[yodaman1151]

I've already messed with the wires, replaced the slightly crispy ones and actually pulled the plug apart cuz it is designed to be taken apart. it has a little retainer clip on the backside that i pulled off and pulled the wires out.

the headlights run through the dimmer but they work both high and low, its the dash and running lights that are screwed up.

my cousin lives in buckeye, he drives a white toyota mr2 and works at walmart tire.

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

no year or anything on the dakota man.. that'll help so i casn look at a wiring diagram

 

[yodaman1151]

sorry 93 dakota 2wd

 

[yodaman1151]

update, so i wired in a toggle switch the other night and drove around using that. i shut it off several times and everything worked as expected. the next day i went to hard wire it in to the dash and put the dash back together and BAM! no running lights... so then i thought i must have plugged it into the wrong pin on the connector and long story short i burnt the door dinger wire and blew the 50A fuse under the hood. got a new fuse and thought "well, i might as well make sure i still have the same problem." i plugged my original switch into the connector and it was like nothing was wrong everything worked like it was from the factory. so i put the dash back together and went to test it again and BAM! it was back to the same old problem.

today i took all the pins out of the connector and slid them onto the switch blades directly and that didn't help any so i don't know what to do next.... rewire the running lights?

weird thing too, i crossed the instrument panel with the dome light wire and the dome light worked on the instrument panel prong and the instrument panel didn't work on the dome prong. but if you put the instrument wire directly to the 12v wire the dash lights up...

i'm so f-ing confused about this whole dilema ( and to top it off, i can't find the smily that bangs his head against the wall )

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

i'll try to look up wiring tomorrow sorry ive been slacking