Truck turns off when lights are turned on

DANNYHUGGINS

MEMBER
FORD F-250

I have a 1997 Ford F-250, it has a 5.8 liter V-8 and it has approximately 117,000 miles. The truck runs fine when the lights are off. I have tried taking off the pos. Battery cable to see if it was a problem with the alternator and the truck continues to run fine, it also runs fine when the parking lights are on, A/C is on, & radio is on. As soon as you turn on the lights though, it dies. I have installed a solenoid last week before the problem occurred and installed new battery terminals, I tried switching the wires around to see if that would solve the problem and that did not work. I changed out the light switch and noticed a couple wires melted and when I put those together the hazard lights tried working but did not blink (I also found out the hazards did not work when I found out the light did not work). Where should I begin looking for the short?

2 Replies

DANNYHUGGINS

MEMBER
3 POSTS

No the problem persists. I installed the switch thinking that the light switch was the problem. The two wires I saw melted when put together did nothing except make the hazard lights appear to try working, in other words they just show green on the blinker display and don't actually blink. The battery terminals and solenoid were replaced because last week the truck decided not to start. I replaced the solenoid first thinking that it was that. I accidentally crossed the wires when I reinstalled the solenoid and that is when I believe the melting of wires probably occurred, but I did'nt notice till a couple of days ago when I tried to turn on my lights and the truck died. I replaced my battery terminals after replacing the solenoid and the truck started and I went on my merry way thinking that the truck was fully recovered from it's sickness only to find that it has new issues later, more than likely due to my incompitence as a mechanic (I'm a plumber, auto mechanics seem to always cause me problems). Anyway, thats my story, any ideas where I should begin looking for the lighting short?