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dimmer switch and harness damage Help?

C

canadianwheeler

NAXJA Forum User
Location
canada
After months of messing around with my lights i have finally found out why they dont stay on. The head light dimmer switch on the steering column is slightly melted and 2 wires on the harness are flaky and staring to fray. It also explains the burning smell coming from my feet when running my head lights.

How difficult is it to replace the switch? Any tips?

Can i buy a new plug/harness for the old switch ? If so where?
 
tigerShark said:
dimmer switch on the column? news to me my '95's both have the switch on the dash.
Click to expand...

I got the head light switch on the dash that turns on the lights as well. I might be naming it wrong but its on the left side of the column near my left shine. It has a rod going to it from the turn single stick to change hi/low beams.

Mine is a 92 BTW
 
Shorty said:
dimmer switch is correct name-- you'll be pulling the wheel and the lock plate to change it-- plug and harness will prolly come from the boneyard.
Click to expand...

I took a peak today just looks like 2 screws. I might be lucky?
 
What year?

95-96 with the airbags.....it's two torx "security" bolts. After you get the plastic surround off of the column, that's 3 torx bolts. Go to Advance Auto and get the tiny set of 1/4" drive security torx sockets.
 
canadianwheeler said:
I got the head light switch on the dash that turns on the lights as well. I might be naming it wrong but its on the left side of the column near my left shine. It has a rod going to it from the turn single stick to change hi/low beams.

Mine is a 92 BTW
Click to expand...
Ok Im all confused! Can you take a pic of what you are talking about? All of my light controls are on the left side of the sterring colum and are mounted on the dash. The only thing on the colum is the multi switch which has the cruise blinkers wipers, and you pull it back to switch between bright and low beam. And what is a "left shine". My XJ didn't come with that
 
Dunno, he's talking about the turn signal stalk though.

Not sure about the size of the torx either, but the tiny security torx bit set that Advance Auto has had the size in it.

You just unscrew the two torx and then it'll basically drop out, where you can then unplug it from the harness.
 
1985xjlaredo said:
Ok Im all confused! Can you take a pic of what you are talking about? All of my light controls are on the left side of the sterring colum and are mounted on the dash. The only thing on the colum is the multi switch which has the cruise blinkers wipers, and you pull it back to switch between bright and low beam. And what is a "left shine". My XJ didn't come with that
Click to expand...

I mean "left shin" aka lower part of your leg. The controls that u are thinking about is the head light switch. The one i am asking about is called the dimmer switch.
 
ive got a 89, 90 & 93 xj & on all of em the dimmer switch (dims the cluster, interior ect..) is the same switch to turn on/off parking, head lights which is a round knob just below the bottom left of the cluster and the high/low beam switch is the rod that comes out of the left side of steering column & controls the high/low left/right turn signals, wipers, (cruise control in the 89) the dimmer knob itself was a easy matter of some screws and a knob release button on the underside of it, im not sure about how to change the high/low beam switch
 
Alucard226 said:
ive got a 89, 90 & 93 xj & on all of em the dimmer switch (dims the cluster, interior ect..) is the same switch to turn on/off parking, head lights which is a round knob just below the bottom left of the cluster and the high/low beam switch is the rod that comes out of the left side of steering column & controls the high/low left/right turn signals, wipers, (cruise control in the 89) the dimmer knob itself was a easy matter of some screws and a knob release button on the underside of it, im not sure about how to change the high/low beam switch
Click to expand...

You are thinking about the headlight switch. The dimmer switch is on the steering column.

CLICK

http://www.discountjeepparts.com/pr.../1102?osCsid=f50051080623703c2b18c3ea652453ce
 
Shorty said:
dimmer switch is correct name-- you'll be pulling the wheel and the lock plate to change it-- plug and harness will prolly come from the boneyard.
Click to expand...

a little late to "edit" my previous post-- the dimmer switch can be changed without pulling the wheel. It's on the drivers side of the column, under the dash, and connected to the turn signal stalk by a rod. Two bolts and it's off--
one's 8mm and one's 10mm IIRC.
 
While your into it that far (its really not that far i guess.. but you DO have the one nut and one bolt removed) might as well replace / check the ignition switch which uses the same mounting point.

The correct name for this part is the "dimmer switch". Headlight switch easily gets confused with "dimmer switch" because of what other vehicle manufacturers call it.

He provided the link to the dimmer switch above, here is a link with picture of the headlight switch that it gets confused with:

http://www.discountjeepparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/1131?osCsid=f50051080623703c2b18c3ea652453ce
 
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