67 running lights died

[Old Ford Blue]

Allright, I've been driving my 67 now for almost two months, and have put close to 1k miles on it, so far shes been running like a champ, and I absolutly LOVE driving it.
Well the other night I was driving home(about 11:30) and I had already been driving for about 30 mins, but my dash lights started flickering, over the course of a about a half a mile they did it about 4 times, then they died altogether. After they went out, they flashed once about 10 seconds later, then they were gone for good. Well, unknown to me that had also killed my tail lights(still had signals and brakes)
I figured I had just blown the fuse, but(since I had to drive it this evening) when I stole the fuse from my 73 they still didn't work... So what I ended up doing was grabbing power from the heater fuse for them(since I didn't need the heater).

Any ideas what could have happened?

And just in case, its a 67 F-100 Ranger, 390\3spd.
Thanks guys!
Gabe

 

[splitshot]

Time to break out the test light, could be a problem with the switch itself. Since you've checked the fuses, I would start there first and see if there is juice going in and out.
Another thing to check is your fuse block, on the older trucks they seem to corrode out. Check to see if you have voltage on both side of the fuse.

 

[Fellro]

It could very much be the switch, in many ways, it has my vote. The fact you have headlights still makes the case for power into the switch, so now it is a matter of testing what comes out.

 

[Old Ford Blue]

I'm beginning to agree with you guys, I'll grab my multi-meter and check the power at the fuse, but if I take a wire and jump power from another fuse to the running light fuse, then I get all my lights. Also my fuse box is very clean with no corrosion.
So I suppose the question is: Does the power go to the switch then to thru the fuse and to the lights, or first the fuse and then to the switch. On second thought, I believe it goes switch first, because I have my tach light in the light fuse so that it dims and comes on with the dash lights.

So I guess I need to swap out the switch and see what happens...


Thanks guys!

 

[Mil1ion]

Headlight switch needs replacing. Make sure you get a good replacement like a Motorcraft.

You might consider doing the Relay upgrade to take the heat off the switch.
Ford's crummy design cause these to eventually fail.

 

[Old Ford Blue]

Thanks guys, it was the switch! Unfortunatly I picked one up from O'Reilys before I read your post Dennis. Oh well. I am definitly planning on going to relay power to the headlights though!


Thanks again! Gabe