Bad headlight switch?

[bryanheffernan]

So I dont have parking lights or interior lights. All fuses are good, everything else works fine so I'm assuming its a switch. I tested all the wires going to the switch and have 12v constant with switch off, then only the constant with parking lights on, and then I have two wires hot plus the constant with the headlights on.

Thoughts?

 

[bryanheffernan]

Anyone? Also how do I jumper the dimmer to see if it's bad?

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

Interior lights or dash lights are out? The dash lighting is from the dimmer switch, the interior lights are on a battery hot wire (orange). This way they come on even with the ignition off.

I don't have any wiring diagrams for a '81 Malibu. IIRC, there is a decent Malibu site that may have that information.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[bryanheffernan]

The dash lights don't come on. The car has a regal dash and fuse box so most of the wiring from the doors forward are regal.

Any idea how to jumper the dimmer harness? I'll leave the switch unhooked as I don't really care about being able to dim the lights.

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

That makes it easier. The dimmer switch is fed power via the park light contacts of the headlight switch. That explains the no dash lights when the parking lights don't work.

Pin A (BRN) of the headlight switch connector is the power out to the parking lights and dimmer switch. If you jumper that connector pin (A) with the orange wire the parking lights and dash lights should turn on. If so then the switch is bad.

You can jump the dimmer switch by placing a wire between pins A (BRN) & D (DK GRN) of the connector. The BRN is the feed from the light switch. Do this with the light switch in the park or 'lights' position so power is provided. The DK GRN wire goes on to the INST LPS fuse in the fuse block then out to the dash lights via a gray wire.

Note that this data is for an '87 Regal.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[bryanheffernan]

So I bought a known good used headlight and dimmer switch but this hasn't fixed my problem. Any other ideas?