1972 Winnebago Brave Headlights and Dash Lights Not Working

[austinbassi]

Hey everybody.

My headlights will not turn on, and neither will any of my dash lights. I checked all the connections near the actual headlights behind the bumper, I traced the wires back under the steering column to the headlight and dash light switches. Nothing seems to be damaged. I cleaned the connections where I could. Nothing seems to be working. The blinkers work fine, the rest of the dash is also operating like normal.

I checked the fuse panel on the left side of the drivers area and all the fuses are still intact. I'm not sure what is going on so any help would be appreciated.

 

[jak secret]

if both the headlights and dash lights do not light, then either there's no power to the switch or your light switch is bad. you'll need a multimeter to check voltage right at the headlight switch. if there is power, you can 'jump' the voltage to the other pole briefly and see if the lights flicker on. if so, you need a new headlight switch.

 

[Morich]

My easy first look would be to try to find a different fuse box, perhaps out under the hood? One of the things to keep in mind is that much of the RV is actually a truck that was built as a stripped chassis and had the basic truck things. That would be where I would expect the chassis fuses to be as a first check. the one inside down by the driver's left foot is often things that were added to make it an RV. Not always totally true but as a general idea when we don't have the drawings to actually look!
I might consider keeping an RV without having a meter to check things is often a hard go as we do tend to have lots of testing we need to do!
But it may be possible to get a manual for the chassis to help. Do you know what truck chasssis it is built on? If finding that, there are sometimes manuals found at public libraries or auto parts stores that will give you the info on where to find the fuses.

 

[SMH2026]

AU,

Get your self a 12 volt test light. They look like an ice pick with a clear handle light and a wire with a clamp, think harbor freight as a source. They're cheap and great to debug a problem like yours. Google for a schematic of your chassis. Locate the chassis fuse panel, Clip the clamp to a good chassis ground. Probe each fuse that you've identified as headlight power fuses. If the test light illuminates you have power at the fuse panel go to the headlight switch and probe the power source to the switch, if there's power at the switch turn the switch on and determine if power flows through the switch, if yes go to each headlight and probe the backs of the connectors with the lights on, one of the back probed pins should have power. If you have power at the light socket, you have failed lamps. If no then you have a broken wire in the loom. I have seen lamps fail, both at basically the same time so it's not to be discounted. It is also possible that the headlight switch has failed.

so it may look like Battery >>> breaker >>> switch >>> fuse>>> Headlights
Some headlights have a self resetting thermal breaker, they also go bad.

Good Luck,

SM