my headlights turn on, but my instrument panel and taillights dont. firstbi assumed a fuse but checked the whole box, all are solid. next step, the headlight switch. sure enough, the #15 pin and harness were all burned up. before going to the junkyard and pulling both and potentially rewiring it wrong, does anyone have a wiring diagram for the switch and harness?

 

You probably can find it by searching google images. You could also keep the harness connector attached and snip the wires off at the junk yard. Typically that is how our local junk yard takes electricals out.

 

yes, that's what ill do. after cleaning the pins the switch works fine but I'm sure there's still a little short crisping in there. is this a common occurrence on these switches? why didn't the fuse catch this?

 

You see pins fry at times in all sorts of pins/connectors..

Usually not a huge problem,

The amperage or load to generate the heat isn't enough to pop the fuse and the connector just melts (usually over time) until the circuit on that pin goes open or intermittent.

If the pin generates heat because of high resistance, either due to damaged (light hold tension on the pin) or load, then the heat generated causes the failure.. Sometimes the contact points within a switch will get hot and the pin then gets hot causing the connection to fail. But usually they just fail with time, heat, and use..

I'd just replace the donor pigtail and switch. Should be fine...