1982 Chevrolet C10 headlights help

[chuckmac_7]

Hey good morning all, I was wondering if someone can help lead me in the right direction, I just bought a 1982 Chevy C10 and the headlights randomly just stopped working, I played with the headlight knob, got them to kick back on for one last drive, and now they won’t work at all,My cigarette lighter won’t work either anymore.Also my blinkers and reverse lights still work. If anyone could please chime in with some advice I’d greatly appreciate it, just picked this thing up last week as a fixer upper so still needs some fine tuning .

 

[PrairieDrifter]

My best guess would be the headlight switch fried itself if all that other stuff went with it. You'll want to upgrade your headlight harness to one of the aftermarket ones. It just uses the switch to trigger the lights instead of powering then through the switch.

 

[mtbadbob]

Check fuses first! Your cigarette lighter shouldn't have anything to do with your headlight switch, unless someone hacked the harness. Also, the actual cigarette lighter element could of coincidentally burned out, they will do that. Sounds like you need a new headlight switch though, regardless.

 

[Rickf]

I had a mid 80's square that had a poor fusible link connection and the headlights would flicker. I'm a big fan of checking for poor grounds and hidden harness insulation cracks.

 

[chuckmac_7]

Okay I swapped headlight switches with a new one, headlights still aren’t working, I checked all the fuses that are under the dashboard, is there any other fuse locations? where should I go from here , Prariedrifter, on LMC Chevy truck website , do I get the heavy duty headlight harness with the single option or dual?

 

[chuckmac_7]

Okay when I pull the headlights switch to turn them on I lose cigarette lighter power, but If I turn it off my cigarette lighter works, same with my interior headlamp it only works with the light switch off .

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Okay I swapped headlight switches with a new one, headlights still aren’t working, I checked all the fuses that are under the dashboard, is there any other fuse locations? where should I go from here , Prariedrifter, on LMC Chevy truck website , do I get the heavy duty headlight harness with the single option or dual?

Do you have four headlights or two? That'll decide whether you need single or dual. Sounds to me like a short to power, maybe some melted wires. The only fuses on these trucks are the fusible links on the passenger side of the engine, and the regular fuses under the dash.

There's a ground location with multiple grounds above the parking brake pedal that should be checked. As well as said above, other grounds, make sure the one on the passenger side head to the firewall is there.

 

[Shawn Watson]

What about the dimmer switch?

 

[CheemsK1500]

My 84 GMC K1500 did this the other day. Coincidencidentally the starter went out shortly after. I noticed a thick blue wire on the starter solenoid was heavily frayed and hanging by a thread. I put a new ring connector on it, and now all my lights are back. I don't understand why this happened, but it did.

 

[Goodguy]

Check/clean your grounds on the radiator support both RH and LH. The negative battery cable should have a wire going to the radiator support If not, that is causing the problem. The taillights are grounded through a different location. This site and other offers wiring diagrams which can be downloaded. That and a voltmeter will be helpful in diagnosis.