And then there was darkness.....

Just last night as I was driving on a non lit up road my head lights went out.

I could not switch to high beams by pushing back on the leaver and I could not get them by pulling it towards me. I am able to get them (highbeams only) by realy realy pulling on the turn signal lever (much further than normal, almost to the point where it's feels like your trying to smap the lever off. The lever itself is very tight and not loose or about to fall off or anything.
The auto sensing was on (truned it off used the manual mode and no diffrence), the side markers were on the tail light were on and the dash lights were on.

I stopped pulled the fuse (even though I knew it had to be good becasue I could still get high beems if I realy pulled on the lever)

So I had to drive home with the daytime running lights ( which do not give off very much light )

I know it's not the bulbs and it's some kind of contact becasue if I try and lock it in the high beem position, the lever locks there but there are no lights and the high beem indicator on the dash does not light up, however when I pull on the lever very hard then the lights come on and the dash indicator comes on too.

Has this happened to anyone else?? Was there not a recall a while back to do something with the lights too??

Thanks

Yeah, a couple of times on road trips. A bit freaky at 120KPH.

It only occured twice and for each particular trip. I had guessed that it was fouled contacts in the switch. It hasn't done it in a few months now.

I really don't have a solution for you other than cleaning the multi-switch.

greetings

The multifunction switch on these vehicles is a known failure point. There was in fact a recall on this not too long ago. It was found that when the headlights are activated with the foglights, the current draw is too much for the stock wiring. This causes the wires to heat up, and melts the contacts within the switch. Some people have had luck just replacing the switch on recall, and never had the problem again. Others have had to rewire the foglights to a seperate circuit. Information on this can be found at <A HREF="http://www.sccoa.com/articles/foglights.html">sccoa member articles.</A> However, it may be worth opening the switch and cleaning it, as this has worked for me in the past with other switches. Goodluck

What I though was the problem

here's a picture of a burnt conector to the turn signal multi function switch. I though this was my problem but it's not. I now have flasher high beems that I didn't have before. I still cannot lock the high beems on though, only pulling them will light any headlights. the low beams are stlll dead.

I took a meter and checked. only the blue/red out of those 4 has 14v the rest did not. Now I don't know if any of the other ones are suposed to have power. any one have a wireing diagram?? or a place where I can get one on the net?

I guess I have to keep tracing back from the multifunction switch. I get power out of the main distro box. I'm thinking it's maybe in the headlight pull switch that the low beam is not getting power.

Anyone have ideas or wireing diagrams?

I would have a diagram for a 92, but I don't know of that would apply. I will scan and post for you.

Is this what you were after?

This does help alot acctualy, thanks very much!! now I know which one is for what

Now here's my next question....

I only have power at the 196 (db/o)

can anyone tell me if I should have power at all of them??

I'm thinking I should have power at all of them.

If I should have power there then I need to trace these wire back. I assume they come from the auto lamp and main head light switch. I gueesing at this point that some current is comming from the main head light switch but not all.

Soop , can you can the diagram for the main headlight switch

That would be great, sorry for the trouble

Not sure if this is going to be any help for you or not..

But here goes..

I had a 1993 Mercury Cougar, Bought brand new in 1994.. sometime around 1996 or 1997, while driving down the road, I noticed my head lights went out.. just for a second, then back on.

I didn't think much of it, however as time went on.. it happened more and more often, to the point that i had no headlights at all. I took the car in, (Ford Dealer) they replace the headlight pull switch/dimmer, and all was well.

Up untill about a year later.. This time however I went to NAPA Auto parts.. bought the switch myself and replaced it. This however proved to only work for a week or so.. Back to the Ford Dealer..

The informed me that the wire harness that plugged into the Headlight/dimmer pull switch had melted to the point it needed to be replace (ie the recall and known problem).

That finally solved my headlight problem, of course I don't have to worry about that anymore. as the car has had not headlights since Aug 2000. Yep, I rear ended someone, and it was totaled.. anyway..

not sure that will help or not... just my .02 worth

Karl

I'll check to see what I've got. Also, you should be aware of the recall on the headlamp switch as XR7 mentioned. This may or may not be the problem.

Funny Thing....

I did have the headligh switched replaced under recall already about a year ago.... That's why I started at the turnsignal multiswitch and found the melted conector cause I could still get some kind of high beem. But now with XR7 comments even the new headlight switch could have gone bad.... I'll have to visit the dealer and find out what he did under recall. Maybe they put in the old one again and not the revised version.

Here's your headlamp schematic. Is this what you are looking for? I have the 92 Tbird vacumm and electrical troubleshooting manual. Very handy.

Rather than posting the pics here, click on the links for testing schematics and instructions for the headlamps and multifunction switch.

Headlamp Test page 1.
Headlamp Test page 2.
Multiswitch page 1.
Multiswitch page 2.
Multiswitch page 3.

If you need anything else, let me know.

That is perfect....

Next time i'm in Surrey i'll buy you a beer....

Did you get that manual at Crapy Tire (Canadian tire)

onto testing.....

Beytor said:

That is perfect....

Next time i'm in Surrey i'll buy you a beer....

Did you get that manual at Crapy Tire (Canadian tire)

onto testing.....

Click to expand...

Not Crappy Tire. It's an original Ford publication that I picked up on eBay.

You know where I am.