Total Lighting Failure

[Joker42]

I have a total light failure in my 85 M1009. Replaced a few lights behind the fuel gauge, everything checked out fine . The next morning, I had no lights and fuses are good. The truck starts and runs, but the volt gauge appears to be higher into the green than normal. Leaning toward the service light toggle or the light switch, but not sure. Appreciate any help/ideas.

 

[dstang97]

turn on lights and wiggle fuse.

 

[Joker42]

Tried that and also changed the fuse just in case.

 

[dstang97]

I would start probing around and make sure you have good grounds and power where they should be. Sorry not that much of help. Are you getting power in the fuse panel?

 

[AZDeuce]

I lost all my lights (except the alternator lights), I checked fuses, then a local fellow CUCVer said to bypass the switch NEXT to the headlight switch and wire it up direct as everything feeds through that switch to feed the headlight switch, he thought the kill switch might have malfunctioned.

I pulled the plug off of the switch and took readings with my multi-meter. ALL the wires were dead!. I had already decided to run a new Power wire from the fuse box with a in-line fuse ., so I cut the wires from the plug, and for some reason decided to retest them.

NOW the Orange wire had power.....it didn't when in the plug. but when I hooked it directly to the orange wire with a black stripe, it went DEAD again!

By itself it had power, but attach it to any other wire and it went dead!

What in the world!!??

So I ran all the wires EXCEPT the orange one off of my jury rigged power wire with the inline fuse, and BINGO I had ALL my lights and horn back.

But I still hve no idea where the short is at! But at least the lights work.

 

[mistaken1]

High resistance connections can show voltage with a tester but when a load is placed on the circuit (lights for example) the current flow causes all the voltage to be dropped across the high resistance connection (things go dead).

Could be a bad connection somewhere along the circuit or a bad wire or a damaged fuse link.

 

[Joker42]

Problem solved! It did come down to a bad connection. The fuse was tight when pushed in, but the connection was not being made. Everything leaned toward the fuse panel and your posts kept pushing me back to it. Persistance. Thanks.

 

[top_prop]

I'm having a similiar problem in my M1009... did you dissassemble your fuse panel?

I won't have any lights, but if I push just a bit in the right spot on the panel (the right spot always seems to move) I'll get them back... sometimes my lights work just fine, but the blinkers wont.. but same fix... just a bump or nudge on the fuse panel.

I've eliminated the black out switch by bypassing it and patching the hot lead for the lights and the ground for the flashers... I'm 100% the problem is in the fuse panel.

 

[Worldpowerlabs]

Problem solved! It did come down to a bad connection. The fuse was tight when pushed in, but the connection was not being made. Everything leaned toward the fuse panel and your posts kept pushing me back to it. Persistance. Thanks.

I've done that more than a couple of times when troubleshooting something -- a component/module will *seem* okay, but somewhere in the back of your mind, there's a nagging doubt. Still, you tell yourself that the problem *must* be somewhere else -- either from previous experience, or because of conflicting measurements, or for some other reason. In the end, it's *is* that component. I should just listen to that little doubt! (I've been designing and repairing electronics for 20 years, and I STILL do this!)

 

[dstang97]

I had to pinch the prongs so it would grip the fuse tighter. that worked for a couple of weeks then started to do it again. I got a soldering iron and built the fuse up with solder and have not had a problem since

 

[top_prop]

I had to pinch the prongs so it would grip the fuse tighter. that worked for a couple of weeks then started to do it again. I got a soldering iron and built the fuse up with solder and have not had a problem since

I have bent one tab of the fuse up, and the other down on a couple fuses to get them to make contact...m I've also taken a small knife and rubbed some of the oxidization off to bare metal on them too... but now it still sometimes kills the lights and just a light pressure on a random spot on the fuse panel is the fix... weird... I'll have to see when I can make time to tear it apart.

 

[dmilkman589]

its the black out switch, guarentee ittttt

 

[Iceman3005]

I'm having this same problem, the 25 amp fuse for the lights fits very loose in the fuse box and the terminals in the box are also loose, and when I push on the fuse blue and red sparks flash through the fuse. Going to have too fix the box asap, really annoying and scary too lose all the lights when cruising at night, other drivers probably would agree too.