More thinking; If I read it correctly, about "having some lights working, but then losing some lights", an ohm meter is not your friend, if there is a random bad connection in the switch. If there is a loose rivet in the switch, it probably would show "good" with an ohms test, but as soon as you apply a load when you power up the lights, the connection can cut out. If I was testing this car, I would be using a simple test light with the switch "on" and powered up, on anything that did work, but has since stopped working.
The switch dose Om test good. Also... with the switch taken out of the circuit, and a jumper wire used between the yellow head light and big brown tail light wires there are no park lights
I'm not sure how the lighting can be such an issue. You need a power supply and ground supply to the load. There are only so many wires to the load. Knowing that the ground side is important, start at the lights that are not working. Verify that the particular circuit has a good path to ground from the load. Once you have a good ground all you need is power supply. If there is no power to the load on the power supply wire trace it back to the source, i.e. switch, fuse, relay, what ever supplies voltage. Find out where the power loss is and restore power. With power and ground the load will work. With smoke from the switch you have a short to ground a too high of a current draw on that circuit. A short to ground is easy to find, isolate any affected power supply wire making sure it is unplugged at both ends, ohms tester to ground and to the power wire. If you have continuity, there is the shorted wire, trace it out and find the short or bypass with a new wire if easier. You might have to do this for each power supply wire to and from the switch. A lot of work but this is what any shop will do to find the short. If you have a good power supply into the switch from the fuse or ignition switch then the power loss is inside the switch. Unplug the switch connector and supply power to the light circuit with a jumper wire after verifying no short to ground on that circuit. With the light hooked up and ready to work you should have a working light at this time. If the light works with your jumper wire at the switch connector you have now verified the whole circuit from the switch out is good. Good circuits into and out of the switch shows the problem has to be in the switch. Just look at it one wire at a time and each circuit is not so bad to understand. At this time I doubt that your problem is to much current draw unless you are using too small of a gauge of wire. If any lights from the switch are working you can skip testing those circuits from the switch and just concentrate on the non working units. Good luck, sorry for the book length reply feel free to p.m. me if I can help you with your problem. edit. post came in after your update. Start at the parking light bulbs make sure the sockets have a good path to ground. Now check the power wire to the parking lights. They might not feed off of the headlamp power supply. The circuit might be wired to only supply the parking lights in the parking position on the switch. This would mean the yellow and brown wires you are jumping to are not even connected to the power wire to the parking lights. Find the power supply wire at the parking light socket and then find the other end of that wire at the switch connector and jumper to it and I'm betting your light will shine. If you want to have your parking lights on with the headlamps you can with a wire added to supply power in both the parking and headlamp positions.
Really good post by Fleetliner on how to simplify your troubleshooting. Its not unusual for a switch to test good with an ohm meter and still be bad. The ohm meter doesn't require the switch to carry hardly any current at all, so its not really testing the switch under operating conditions.
Seems the reason that I had no front park lights is that they are somehow controlled from the dash light dimmer rheostat segment of the switch. When set in the dome light 'on' position I have full front park lights. They dim when you turn the switch, as would be normal of instrument lights. So... do I not have this switch wired correctly? Is the diagram wrong? photos from today.
My eyesight not the best on your pics, but something must be wired wrong. Use a test light to see what the terminals do, on each position of the switch. Your park lights should be a different terminal than tail lights, because park lights should go out as you change to headlights on. So, the park light terminal should be the only terminal that lights up "only when in the park position, which is one half way out to the first click"
You will fix this today I bet Hopefully the diagram is correct on just the main power input wire. Leave that one on, take all the other wires off. - test each terminal in each position to see what each one does. -dash lights go to the term that changes with reostat. -tail lights go to the term that gets power on first AND last click -Headlight feed to foot dimmer, goes to term that only comes on at 2nd full click out -park lights go to term that only comes on at first half click. get all the above lights working before messing with the dome light wire...leave that wire off for now
I have ground wires run to a plate light in the glove box and a map light on the dash... there is no power wire to those lights at this point. Edit: I know that the interior light grounds through the switch, but it has never been connected
So did you replace the headlight switch? or are you still using the one that smoked? I know when I wired my headlight switch up, the switch had a different pin out then what the included instructions said. Finally found a diagram online of my switch and it fixed the problems. I just seen you used the same harness/switch as me. Let me get some pics of mine for you to see.
a note about the switch... I was on the phone with the manufacture and looking straight at the switch. It was less than a second before I had all the wires jerked out. I can supply pix of the Om test on the switch if needed
OKay here we go. The parking light wires are wrong between the Rebel diagram and your switch. Not sure whos fault it is, the wire or the switch but here is mine and everything works. On the plus the colors will match your harness exactly. The big orange "ignition" wire was only used as the splice. If you need to see full size (super size) pics go here: http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/index.php?album=bucket3 Hope this helps you out. Drove me nuts trying to figure this out.
Yup. Like I said, its either that diagram, or the switch itself. Not sure if its a different switch supplier? But I did the same as you, fought for a while. I will see if I can track down the other diagram I found that pointed me in the right direction.
Its the diagram. Search for "GM 7 pin headlight switch" and you will see a bunch that point you to the right wiring. There seems to be two versions of this switch. One that matches the Rebel diagram. And another that does not. Wonder if there was a change somewhere along the line that is not documented.
went down and changed it already... front park lights now control from the switch. Thank you sir, and thanks to all who have responded.
WOOHOO glad you got it sorted out. Maybe we should tell Rebel about the issue. Might save some others from the same hassle! I never even thought about it...once I got it sorted out I just sort of forgot about it.
A bad ground in the lighting circuits can cause heavier current draw,...and "smoke" the switch / wiring,....... 4TTRUK
Any ideas on why I would have no power to the brake lights unless the key is on (ACC)? Still blowing fuses...
That's the way the Rebel Wire harness is setup, lights on one circuit in the fuse panel that works with key off. The brake light switch wire is on another circuit that only works with the key on, found out the hard way on that one..lol
The turn signal circuit may be the problem. The brake light switch is deactivated by some relay when the turn signals are operating. That is the case when you use the same bulb for the turn signal and the brake light. I have never heard of a car that does not have brake lights with the ignition off. This would be a real road hazard and Rebel wiring should be made aware of this problem. Lawyers would love a case like this because of a accident caused by this wiring mistake. This problem could be fixed easily, with the brake lights being feed from another power source than the ignition switch. How are the hazard lights feed? I would contact Rebel
In the 6th pic in your series is what appears to be a trailer light connector. Is this what you are showing? If so, pull the plug out while checking your wiring, as you possibly have a short there. You may want to put a wrap of tape around the terminals to keep them from contacting the housing. Alden
If you make up a tester like this and plug it in the panel in place of the fuse. The pilot light will stay lit and let you locate the short without continually blowing fuses. You can also make up a test lead with a self resetting circuit breaker instead of the pilot light and fuse, that will permit you to see which lights work and help pinpoint the bad portion of the circuit.
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