i recently installed a new radio and made the mistake of hooking up the dimmer/ill wires (the orange ones). now my tailights, parking lights, and instrument cluster lights dont work. i took out the radio and checked all of the fuses, but still no go. any suggestions? thanks.

 

Did you check the fuses under the hood?

 

checked both fuse boxes with a multimeter and still a no go. i also made sure the tail lights weren't burnt out despite the fact the reverse and hazards work. i am curious if the wire harness for the headlight switch may have shorted when i connected the orange wire (backlight dimmer) for the radio...

 

Hopefully you didn't put in bigger fuses like I did and melt your dimmer wire. That was a mistake I made and knew better, caused myself alot of extra work. Anyway, I got a 4.0 and I was blowing the #33 fuse under the hood everytime I turned on my headlights. As for hooking up your pigtail, you can hook up the illumination wire that connects to the blue with red stripe, but just clip the (pig tail) orange that will connect to your black (truck side) wire. If you ended up frying your switch let me know I gotta an extra one lying around I'll ship to you, you just gotta pay the shipping, but I highly doubt you fried your switch. BTW I got a 2003 Ranger XLT (for switch compatability).

 

installed a new headlight switch that i had gotten from napa and still having the same problems. ill try looking at the dimmer control also. it seems like the headlight switch lights up (the off, parking light, and headlamp indicator) until i turn the switch to on and it doesnt light up anymore. i have an 03 xl regular cab...

 

I AM A MORON!!! i rechecked every fuse under the hood and driver's side panel and discovered that i had blown a fuse under the hood. that bugger was barely noticeable until i inspected it and used a multimeter on it. i guess it also helped that i performed the inspection when i had more time during daylight hours as opposed to the nighttime. ha. thanks for everyone's suggestions and help.

 

i've been having similar problems. My tail lights, marker lights in the front, license plate lights, and instrument cluster lights had all gone out. I was told to check a certain fuse under the hood. I checked it and found it blown out, and replaced it. I put in a new fuse, same size, and everything started working again. Then the new fuse blew out. I put in a second fuse and again everything is working. Still, I am concerned about what is causing the short in the first place.
After reading this thread I am thinking my problem is the radio/stereo headset that I messed the wiring up on. I had it professionally installed, but messed the wring up myself. Long story. How that is connected to all that other stuff is beyond my limited comprehension. Electrical troubleshooting is some tricky stuff. I feel certain that is where my problem starts though. Thanks for the tip.

kountzer

 

@WildBill83 Which fuse needed changed? I have been playing guessing games with fuses all day and have changed all the cluster panel/tail light related fuses in the fuse box residing in the cab. Also one was changed under the hood, but I am curious which one caused the problem for you (before I go buy more fuses that will change nothing)
Thank You in advance!

 

So after taking my new cd player out and putting the stock radio in, and of course replacing the fuse in my hood that kept blowing. (instrument cluster/tail light fuse) Everything was working again. When overviewing my wiring I noticed the unused wires I had taped together had a bit of bare wire sticking out and my power amp out of my cd player was touching my orange dimmer switch wire to my truck. Valuable lesson for me, do not pre strip all wires, only the ones you need to hook up. Also, do not tape unused wires together, since there is a reason they are not being connected to anything. I hope this helps someone out there!