General Technical & Electrical General technical and electrical discussion for the Ford Ranger that does not fit in any other sub-forum.

Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
  #1  
Old 06-25-2018
kevoid's Avatar
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Lakeland, FL
Posts: 75
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC

I was putting my dash back in after replacing all the cluster bulbs when I noticed the headlight switch itself has a little bulb covered with blue rubberized material. It doesn't light up so I tried to pull it out thinking it was one of the small cluster type bulbs. It came out alright - although it wasn't supposed to. It appears to be a long stem that clips in and out of the switch after you open the switch up. I'm hoping someone may know where to get these at. I've attached a couple of pictures, but remember the bulb snapped off, isn't in the pictures.

Ignore the broken post for the screws, someone who had this truck before me essentially ripped everything off when they wanted to remove it. I've been trying to repair/rig/glue the connectors the best I can in the hopes no to have to buy new ones type thing.

In the first picture the hole to the left of the dial is where the bulb was.
In the next two picture you can see the stem the bulb was in and from what I can tell the bulb and stem are meant to be replaced as a single unit.

Hopefully these can still be had, but I can't seem to be able to pull them up when searching online. I keep finding headlight bulbs and cluster bulb references...
 
Attached Thumbnails Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC-97-ranger-headlight-switch-1-.jpg   Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC-97-ranger-headlight-switch-2-.jpg   Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC-97-ranger-headlight-switch-3-.jpg  
  #2  
Old 06-26-2018
kevoid's Avatar
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Lakeland, FL
Posts: 75
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
Ok, I finally did find the headlight switches for about $15 to $20 to the door. However, I decided to try an LED mod on it first. When doing this I ran across a couple things I think are worth mentioning and sharing.

1 - with the truck off, keys off, and light switch off no juice passes thru the bulb connection.
2 - with the truck started and the the light switch off there is a full 12vdc plus going across the bulb connection.
3 - with the truck started and the light switch in either of the two non-off positions I got about 3.5vdc 'ish.

My understanding is the headlight switch bulb is on nice and bright while the truck is running and the lights are off. This is to make it easy to find the headlight switch, I guess, and when you turn the light switch to one of the two non-off positions the headlight switch bulb dims down some.

Here's what I did.
1. I removed the bulb from the headlight switch (it pretty much just snapped off on mine - see previous post)
2. I plugged the headlight switch back into the truck
3. I used a multi-meter in vdc mode to measure across the headlight switch connectors with truck off, truck on, all switch positions, etc type thing.
4. Based on the measurements I got I decided on a resistor value to limit voltage/current to the LED (there is a ton of info on the web how to do this)
5. I then used some test leads to wire up the the resistor to the LED for testing.
6. With a red marker and the LED testing setup (#5 above) I went to the truck, started it, and used the LED testing setup to determine which side of the headlight switch was positive (where the resistor/positive-side-of-led) connects and marked the positive side with the red marker. It's easy to tell as the LED will light up when you got it right. Could use a multi-meter too, but using the LED test setup I got to see visually everything was working and at a brightness I'm happy with.
7. Took the switch, LED, and resistor back into the house and soldered things in and put a bit of heat shrink wrap around things to protect it some.

When you look the at the stem that the original bulb went to and where you put the LED it's pretty much self explanatory how it connects to the headlight switch and it's connectors. I simply pulled the wires that where up inside the stem, that connected to the original bulb, out thru the bottom and soldered to those.

The resistor I used was over-kill at 3 watts, may I say way over-kill at 3-watts, but it's the one I had on stock, so it's what I used. I haven't put the everything back together yet and when I do I'll update this to let you know if the I have things on the switch worked fit-wise going back into the dash. It looks like it will, but ya, let's wait make sure it does before saying it does

I've attached a picture of how mine came out looking.
 
Attached Thumbnails Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC-97-ranger-headlight-switch-led-mod-.jpg  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Toms994x4
Interior Semi-Tech
32
02-25-2020 07:18 AM
sullys_ranger
Interior Semi-Tech
12
09-29-2010 03:30 PM
ac0413
General Technical & Electrical
2
03-02-2009 08:31 PM
04rangerxlt
General Technical & Electrical
18
04-23-2006 09:13 PM
Fx4wannabe01
General Technical & Electrical
32
03-02-2006 04:40 PM



Quick Reply: Head Light Switch Bulb (buld on switch itself) 97 Ranger SOHC



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:14 AM.