Headlight switch troubles

[DEERE3594]

I replaced my headlight switch a couple months ago and noticed the orange wire looked to be getting hot. Today my switch went out again. The wire is really getting hot, missing insulation.. What is going on here? I have a lot of after market "chicken lights" if you will but they are all on separate switches. All my stock marker lights other then tail and front turn signals are LEDs. Any ideas?

 

[JiFaire]

You aren't running 4 high-beams without a relay, are you? Lots of guys do that mod with a diode in the fuses and it is hell on switches...

 

[JiFaire]

From what I can see, the orange wire is only on the DRL circuit. Wiring diagram attached.

 

[DEERE3594]

You aren't running 4 high-beams without a relay, are you? Lots of guys do that mod with a diode in the fuses and it is hell on switches...

Yes, I have since fixed that. That was a couple switches and years ago :mad2:

From what I can see, the orange wire is only on the DRL circuit. Wiring diagram attached.

My 94 dosnt have Daytime running lights like my 96 did.. Or am I missing something? If it dose they haven't worked in years

 

[JiFaire]

My 94 dosnt have Daytime running lights like my 96 did.. Or am I missing something? If it dose they haven't worked in years

You'll have the wire, and the fuse, just not the module. From what I can see, it's the only orange wire in that cluster.

Any way you look at it, if the orange wire is melting insulation and getting hot, you need to find out what it does and do something about it.

Either that or buy a bag of marshmallows.

 

[DEERE3594]

You'll have the wire, and the fuse, just not the module. From what I can see, it's the only orange wire in that cluster.

Any way you look at it, if the orange wire is melting insulation and getting hot, you need to find out what it does and do something about it.

Either that or buy a bag of marshmallows.

Let me check it again, maybe Im thinking the wrong color, it was a long night at work ):h

 

[DEERE3594]

I have Brown, orange, yellow, and a big red wire from the switch. The orange one has melted the terminal gone of the switch and burnt the back side of the switch

 

[bk95td]

Is it a napa switch? I had one go up in smoke in less than a year. Napa's electrical parts have really gone in the toilet.

 

[DEERE3594]

This one is GM, the ones before it were auto zone..

 

[Tookie]

I found the same thing when wiring my boost gauge for dash lighting -
orange wire burnt to hell, melted the insulation off of a couple of others
that were bundled with it - I had to cut and splice a few new ones,
never found out for sure what it was. But everything seemed to work,
even with the wire burnt up - I had pulled the fuse for my DRL a couple of
years prior to this, so I assumed that was it.
I suggest you people pull your switches and check the wiring, may save
someone a fire :firedevil:

 

[buddy]

Just cut the wire and stop the current from reaching the load, and no heat. if it doesnt do anything for a 94 its not needed. Maybe it is shorted somewhere.

Im having light swith issues too, havent taken it apart yet, but dash and rear lights dont come on at first unless I wiggle switch and hear the contacts arcing inside and then it comes on.

 

[ak diesel driver]

I've got a double relay for my headlights and another relay for my driving lights and yet another relay for all four high beam. My headlight switch doesn't hardly even click when you dim the lights. Why all the relays I have 100w highbeams 80w low beams and 130 driving lights. No more switch trouble now.

 

[Bullseye240]

I installed the heavy duty headlight harness from LMC and noticed that the switch doesn't even get hot now. I also put a diode in the back side of the relay connectors for all four headlights on, no problems since.

 

[DEERE3594]

Well I cut the little orange wire, that was a mistake. No parking lights now.. Im making my own 2 switches now with relays to eliminate this problem

 

[Brooklyn Tow]

These rigs are known for bad/hot headlight switches..........With that said, Bullseye said something about a HD headlight switch.....

 

[buddy]

I was just thinking about this thread a couple days ago, because mine always gets hot and smells bad, so I took my dash panel apart and found more than one terminal on the harness had been turned brown (the plastic was white/clear).

I think it was my red and the orange wire were hot, the switch itself was hot at the back, but the more expensive one from Kragen seems to not get hot, it wasnt Delco. Ive only had it in a few days though. Maybe over time it will deteriorate.

I got the AllData and the wiring diagram is different than JiFaire posted, dont know if it is completely accurate though. The DRLs come off of one of the two yellow wires.

 

[Matt Bachand]

I blew through a 2 of them when i wired in my lights... Now i have all the bed lights on a 2nd switch, never got around to wiring in relay.