In article <Pine.LNX.4.44.0505111324090.5159-100000@uofr.net>,
dml@tepidcola.com (Michael Maskalans) writes:
>
>
> So I jumped in my Dak last night and pulled the headlight knob to....
> nothing. jiggled the switch and got no flicker. tried high beams and I
> had them. couldn't get the low beams to light.
>
> got out, popped the hood, checked for fuses and there's one for both high
> and low in the PDC and that's it. and it was good. tried the lights
> again, and they worked. got in to drive and they didn't.
>
> did a little more playing and found that it's the column harness - with
> the wheel all the way up my low beams work. if I tilt it I don't get
> them.
>
> Who's been in a gen III column? Is it a "pigtail" harness for the column
> that's easilly replaced? If one wire is bad will they all be
> nearly gone wherever that pinch point is, or should I just patch the
> break in the one known bad and call it a day?
>
> This just happened last night and I had to be up early so I didn't pull my
> FSM out yet to look at anything, but I'd appreciate any experience you
> have to share.
> --
> MikeM
> '98 SAS SLT CC; 121,500mi
>
It wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve had problems with both my ’88 and ’96 with the
tilt wheel steering column. Both times, my problem was related to my turn
signals not working but the hi/lo switch is in the same assembly and harness.
The harness just plugs into the switch in the column.
With both trucks, when I first started noticing the problems, it was related to
the position of the tilt wheel. If I moved it, it seemed to go away.
In the 96, the turn signals just eventually quit working. After pulling it
apart I found the 12V lead in the harness to the switch had broken right at the
tilt. I had to solder a small length of wire in to repair it because it looked
like the wire was a hair too short from the factory, which probably caused it
to pull apart in the first place. I only found it after playing with it for a
while since the wire only broke internally and looked intact.
My ’88 also has problems where the both the signals and 4 ways quit working
completely. But I later discovered if I leave the 4-way switch in the on
position, the signals will work. I haven’t pulled it apart yet but I expect
the problem to be in the column as well. I would guess there is either a power
lead or ground issue and it’s back feeding when I leave the 4-way switch on
Walt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jun 01 2005 - 05:44:45 EDT