I'm having a problem that's really stumping me, and everyone i've asked for help. For the past couple days now, when I pull my headlight *** out, the headlights go on, but my cluster lights don't come on and neither do the tail lights, the brake lights and turn signals still work..but not the running tail lights. But when I push the *** back in a hair, my headlights go off, and the cluster and tail lights come on. It doesn't make sense to me. I just put a brand new headlight switch in last night and it still does the same thing. I've checked all my fuses, and had one fuse that looked like it had a tiny little burn black spot in it so I replaced it and didn't change anything either. Can anyone help me please. Oh, and it didn't start doing this until a day or so after I put a 3inch body lift on the truck, if that means anything to anyone.

 

what happened is this you lost the ground to the lights when you put in the body lift on or in however you want to put it. now you're stuck chasing down a bad ground wire or strap

 

I checked the ground strap for the cab and it seems fine. Might sound like a stupid question, but is there a ground strap for the bed of the truck too?

 

Yes; one of the joys of Fords are that everything in the car (frame, body, engine, dash, etc) has a direct path to ground. And Mr. Grindman is totally correct in saying that everything about this feels like a missing ground (I would start with a quick check of the wiring up near the taillights near/under the spare tire for a missing ground eyelet, but that's just me).

 

So I went through the fuses again, the first time.. I went through the fuses by the amperage shown on the fuse diagram instead of actually reading the amperage on the fuses themselves for the placement. Instrument panel/tail light/headlight fuse was blown. The guy I bought it from put a 30 amp in it instead of a 40 amp like he should've. Lasted this long but that was definitely the problem. Everything works as it should now.thank you everyone

 

about the best way to check fuses is with a volt ohm meter cause there are times when it's really hard to tell if a fuse is went bad. glad to hear you got it fixed

 

Just a little uneasy at this point. Do you have the owner's manual and if so, can you check what that particular fuse controls? It takes a lot of power to blow a 40 amp fuse and would like to know why it was replaced in the first place. What ever caused it to blow may still be lurking in there unless it was caused by something you may have done, which I doubt. Sorry to rain on your parade , but it may be one of the other things that fuse protects. What do you think?