This 1994 Ford ranger came in with no low beam headlights and an owner with no money needing at least low beam headlight operating. He stated that he he could deal with no high beams. The first thing that I did was to confirm that there was no power on the red/black wire at the headlights. With that information along with the fact that the high beams were working properly I knew the problem was in the dimmer switch. Sorry for the blurry pictures. I guess I was in a hurry as time is money and this customer did not have much money. At this point I had already removed the the steering column covers by removing the phillips headed screws from the underside and separating the two halves. Then a couple of torx head screws and the switch was out. I could see some heat damage from the back side of the harness connector.
From the side you can see more heat damage.
Finally a clear picture of the heat damage.
If you click on the switch you will be able to se the burnt mark in the center of the recessed curve area. To give the customer low beams only and to save him money I cut and spliced both the red/yellow and red/black wires together. Not the kind of work I like to do but as long as it is safe and reliable I will generally do what the customer wants. I can also see the customers point on this one the switch from the dealer is about 300 dollars. Yikes!!!!
The best I can say today is to enlarge the second picture and get an idea of where they go. Aftermarket wiring diagrams do not show terminal locations. If your year model is available from Ford factory information it may show terminal locations.
i have the same problem except on taking the connector out it fell apart and all the wires are out of place what color should go where?
Perfect and awesome short term fix until I can locate an affordable multi switch. Thanks for your awesome advice and photos.
Thanks for the post Sparky! This also worked for my 1993 Ford Ranger XLT, I made a jumper form the red/yellow red/black and presto, sure I don’t have brights but my headlights work normally now, and hey I can still flash my brights if I need to get someone’s attention.
I had the same problem and fixed it the same way, but then these wires started melting again, I thinl it was because I used bright blue light bulbs. I replaced them with the OEM bulbs and hopefully I wont have the same problem again