Hacked up park light switch wiring.

[Haze]

My wagon project has some electrical issues that eventually led me to the park light switch on top of the steering column where I found two of the wires cut from the harness and hooked up to bypass the switch (see attachment).

I soldered everything back together the way it should be but the park light function still doesn't work and now the headlights don't work either.

Is this part of some common wiring mod? Should I be looking somewhere else for more hacked wiring to fix? Or does a failed park light switch also take out the headlights and this was just a way to get around it? Anyone know how to test that switch?

[rhino6303]

Did you check the fuses after the fix?

[Haze]

Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned the fuses are all still good.

[rhino6303]

Hmm. You might triple check fuses 14, 15 and 16 in the cabin. This switch connects to all of the running light systems.

[Haze]

I finally got back to working on this electrical issue and sure enough, fuse 16 had popped. I was sure it was good before I repaired the wiring so thanks for the "triple check" advice.

With the fuse replaced, I now have a different issue. The corner markers come on as expected when the headlight switch is put in the first position but when the headlights are turned on, the corner markers turn off. The park lamp switch on the column still doesn't do anything either. 

I'm thinking the switch has to be bad but have no idea how to test it.

[silverton]

The park switch is an independent circuit, so you have some figuring out to do there.  if the park lights work in the second position on the headlight stalk, but not the third, i would replace the headlight stalk.  according to the wiring diagram the switch connects to the park light circuit (not to be confused with the park light switch circuit) in the second position, and then when turned to the third position for headlights, it passes through the park light connection in the stalk so, something inside the switch isn't working.

just for information, the park light switch is connected to fuses 14, 15 and 16, the headlight stalk and park light switch go direct to the tail/illumination relay on their own circuits, fuse 14 is hot at all times.

Edited October 1, 2022 by silverton

[Haze]

I got the '07 service manual and used the wiring diagrams to check the headlight switch function.

If I understand it correctly, pin 13 is grounded to pin 16 for headlights and pin 14 to pin 16 for the corner markers. If that's the case, the headlight switch isn't the issue as pins 14 and 16 show continuity in both the second and third switch positions. The search continues...

[Haze]

I believe I have this solved. The corner markers actually pull power from two different places. One when the headlamp switch is in the second position (which was working on my car) and another when the headlamp switch is in the third (headlights on) position or the park lamp switch is on.

I won't write an essay here but basically if you're experiencing this issue, make sure you have battery voltage at fuse #15 under the hood and the fuse is good (mine was). Then check for battery voltage at the center terminal of the tail and illumination relay (see photo) as well as the white wire on the park lamp switch. If you have no power, there is a break in the wiring somewhere after fuse #15 which provides power to both spots. I haven't found the break yet but I temporarily ran power straight to the relay terminal and the corner markers then stayed on with the headlights. The park lamp switch still didn't work so I may have multiple breaks or my switch is bad after all.

Edit: I should add, fuse #15 powers the white wire in the brown connector on the bottom side of the fuse panel. Unfortunately, that wire disappears behind the fender before branching off and coming back to power the relay.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Haze