OT: fuse block diagram or legend

See headers for email. I can send you diagram for my 85 El Camino in Adobe PDF format. They may be the same.

I thought I added email. try, rlm4848atyahoo.com

There is no headlight fuse in the fuse block. The headlight circuit is protected ahead of the switch by a fuse link which is located by the starter, the circuit is protected after the switch by a circuit breaker internal to the switch.

The diagram I have shows a red wire from Bat.+ fuse link to light switch and yellow wire from light switch to dimmer switch.

just as an aside, I've had both headlights burn out at nearly the same time on a couple of cars, and I've had the switch go bad too, so it could be more than the fuse link

on my 59 cad, as I reacall, when I was first getting it running after a long rest in a barn, I needed to disassemble the headlight switch and clean everything due to oxide build up - so it 's probably worth verifying that power goes into and out of the switch

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:10:35 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, JR North quickly quoth:

Fords all come with silkscreened labeling right on the fuse box. Just one more reason to avoid GM products, I guess.

--LJ, who's finally fed up with the Big 3 and just ordered a new Tundra from Toyota, saving at least $10k vs. the Big 3 prices, and feeling better about the stability of the Japanese company.

-- Who is John Galt?

Or I can check the manual for my '86 GMC p/u if yours isn't the same .

Yup, if you had a big load and hit a hard bump and the headlight filaments were old and brittle you could have them both go out at the same time.

I would first check the headlights themselves since it is a very easy check.

John

Always worried me that on the motorcycles I owned, everything ran from one fuse - including the headlight.

Never blew a fuse at 60 on a country road on a moonless night, but it was a scary thought.

I had both low beams burn out at the same time on my 93 S-10. I was close to home, and there was little traffic. Hi-Beam City...

I have.

A Triumph.

About a half moon that night.

Hit a deer 15 seconds later.

Not an experience Id care to repeat.

Gunner

You know it is strange, folks that say things like "Domestic Junk" seem to ignore the fact that there is a whole lot more older American cars on the road than there are imports. I am a locksmith and while I still cut keys on a regular basis for cars from the 50's 60's 70's and 80's I have noticed that I have not cut a key for a Japanese import from the 70's in a very long time.

A headlamp circuit failure on a 22 year old pick up hardly seems to be grounds to bash the entire US auto industry.

BTW I drive a Mercedes and I have had headlamp trouble several times due to old electrical connections.

I was 35 miles from home one evening when it got dark enough to turn on the headlights. They were rather dim, and shortly thereafter the car died.

I pulled over and turned the lights off, and barely got the car to start. Realized it was my alternator that gone bad, and that I had been running on battery, which was now almost depleted. So depleted, in fact, that hitting the brake lights caused the engine to miss.

Drive home 35 miles on I-5 without any lights by following a truck the whole way home.

Not an experience I care to repeat.

Jon

1. Imports were a mere few % of the US car population in the '60's,

70's, to mid 80's. The percentage grew exponentially from here as smart people wised up and shunned the Domestic market.

1. I noted this OP's flaw as 'one of hundreds' of qualifiers as cause to bash the whole US automobile industry.
2. Mercedes? 'Junk' doesn't only apply exclusively to domestic cars. JR Dweller in the cellar who routinely bashes the whole US auto industry, qualifiers or no, just because, well...they deserve it.

Roger Shoaf wrote:

I am not sure where you were in the 70's and 80's but in the Bay Area, the streets were crawling with Datsun's, Toyota's and Honda's.

I do not suggest that there are not a lot of junky cars produced by any car company, but my point was that I suspect the market perception that if it says Honda or Toyota on the badge that somehow it will run forever and never leave you stranded. Bunk. All cars need fixing and will have components fail from time to time.

I personally do not like Toyota's. My wife had one and you had to buy a new set pf plug wires when you wanted to replace the distributor cap. Want a new tail light socket? No problem buy a new wiring harness.

The OP has a truck that is over 20 years old. A minor problem in an electrical circuit is hardly reason to scrap the truck or bash the company that made it.

I was in 7-11 the other day and got a couple Bratwurst "hotdogs"

When I had retrieved the buns from the steam cabinet, I discovered that both of them had not been sliced. So I had to do so with my social knife

Poor quality control is no excuse.

Boycott the Bakers!!!!

Gunner

Thanks to RLM's PDFs and aarcuda69062's pointing me to the red wire and yellow wire, I tracked my problem down to the headlight switch.

My buddy had a switch that apparently was a generic replacement for mine (and his).

Changed the switch and Bob's yer uncle.

My thanks to all.

technomaNge

Was a Follow Vehicle for Devonshire on the LAPRAC Baker to Vegas relay race in '84 in my then-new '84 Toyota 5 speed Pickup with the stock 50A Nippondenso alternator. Started out with all the stuff turned on - VHF and UHF radios, CB, Scanner, full rotary lightbar, hazards, 4434A flashers, post spots, gutter lights, separate stereo for the runner, etc. - and everything lit up like July 4th.

Then I found out that car alternators don't put out anywhere near their rated current when you're chugging along at just above idle in first gear all night...

By midnight it was Tail/Marker lights, one amber magnetic bubble-gum light on the roof, all radios off except for VHF needed to coordinate with the next stage, and low beams on only when the runner needed to see the road ahead. And it was still dicey on voltage - had to treat it like Green Acres, one thing goes on and another had to go off.

The week after I got home I had a 90A Delco (Beefed to 120A) hanging from Lestek brackets stuffed into that space. And If they weren't triple the money, I would have gotten the 180A Lestek.

Fool me once...

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