A cop was giving me an odd look the other day. He came up to me and said my running lights were flickering. Sure enough, it happens when I activate the brake lites. 96 f-150 in line 6. When I acually turn the lights on, the flickering stops. However, as well, when I shut the engine off, sometimes the high beam light indicator stays on. As well, when I start the truck up, the emergency brake light stays on. If i play with the headlight control, then both of these issues go away. Anyone else experience this?

 

Welcome to the forum! Looks like bad body grounding or/and some failures in headlight switch. Try to add another body grounding directly from battery terminal and see if the problem goes away

 

^^ what he said ^^

 

Thank you Fast Hampter and Dewman for your replies. The grounding seems ok. I will check the headlight controller next. I like this place.

 

+1 on the headlight control (or related wiring). If it's a wiring issue, you could have a heck of a time finding it. Try the switch first, and if you don't succeed there, you'll need to trace wiring from it and check connectors, look for worn/frayed wires, etc. Electrical issues a horrible...

 

Perhaps inspect your rear lights- there may be a problem with the socket or bulb that allows the brake light voltage to bleed over to the taillights - which would backfeed to all the 'parking light' circuit.

Have no idea as to why the highbeam indicator is acting the way it does.

Or perhaps I misunderstood - assumed your term 'running' lights meant the parking lights - didn't think the '96s had the daytime running lights????

 

I've had similiar issues with dash lights and idiot lights coming on and off for no reason and solved it with a ground from the battery to the body. It could also be the switch maybe, my headlight switch connector has melted some.

 

Yes, its a ground issue. In electrical circuits the ground is usually common to all circuits. Without going off on a tangent, in electronics grounds are not created equal. nuff said. Fortunately, in our little world of lites and stuff, the grounds are common to each other in circuits. If one bulb has to much resistance to ground it will back feed into another circuit. This is what you are experiencing. As was mentioned, try another temporary ground wire.

 

True, electrical problems can be a real b*tch to figure out sometimes. I had a 93 Dakota that the flashers would not work. I replaced bulbs and the flasher relay with no improvement. I took it to a repair shop that specialized in automotive eletrical problems. They traced it to a wire that ran under the washer fluid reservoir and the insulation had come off and it was shorting out. If you can't resolve the problem, you may want to consider taking the truck to an electrical specialist.

 

Here's my 2 cents worth, when I bought my '95 (Used) the head light switch had to be in just the right position to turn on both the headlights and marker/tail lights. One night I drove home late, and the long drive gave the switch plenty of time to get very hot, and before I got home I was smelling melted plastic. Rather than have my beloved new old truck burn up, which would be doubly bad since I'm a professional fire fighter, I stopped and picked up a headlight switch from autozone. Fixed it that night in the drive way in the dark, and I'm not much of a mechanic, so that should give you an idea of how easy it was. The part didn't cost much either. If I had known, I wouldn't have waited for almost a fire before fixing it. Anyway, all that to say, if the lights are doing funny things, the switch is an easy place to start corrections. Good luck!

Got any tips for finding the reverse light wire? I'm hooking up a 7 pin RV connection and can't find where to attach my back up light wire. Truck doesn't have factory tow package, so I'm kinda winging it.