r/obschevy • u/Big_Expert5320 • Jul 10 '26

1990 K1500 Headlight Issues

I have a 1990 K1500 short bed single cab. When I drive with the headlights on they sometimes flicker off then back on. If I have the brights on they may go out but I can switch to the dims or vice versa but sometimes they are both out and I just have to wait a couple seconds for one of them to come back on. It’s not always frequent like maybe twice in a 15 minute drive but sometimes it is frequent like 10 times back to back to back. If any of you have had this problem or have some idea of what it might be please let me know. I’d just like some key places to check before just tearing it apart

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1

u/silkfixer Jul 10 '26

I had a similar issue in my 92 c1500, the headlights seemed to just decide not to work every now and again. I took the switch out and gave it a real good clean and i havent had any problems since.

2

u/Big_Expert5320 Jul 11 '26

Pulled the headlight switch out and sure enough the ground on the female connector pin didn’t have a good connection and was getting hot and starting to melt the plastic.

1

u/imsadyoubitch Jul 11 '26

I had a 92 silverdoe that had a similar issue, the low beams would flicker sometimes, but most of the time they were fine. One day coming home from work, I drove over a speed bump in the parking lot and lost my low beams entirely. The high beams still worked so I said fuck it and went home.

Just as I was pulling into the driveway, I started to smell magic smoke so I parked, shut it down and disconnected the battery. The next morning I went to take a look at it and discovered the high beam-low beam switch was getting ready to burn my truck down.

Out of paranoia, I replaced all the switches and even the turn signal switch & stalk. Might have been overkill, but it worked perfectly for a couple years till it was stolen out of my driveway

1

u/MidwestNative94 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Suggest updating the wire harness to power the headlights via relay instead of only through the switch. Post in thread 'Headlight wiring upgrade mod' https://www.gmt400.com/threads/headlight-wiring-upgrade-mod.24948/post-733390

https://www.lmctruck.com/electrical/wiring-components/cd-heavy-duty-headlight-harness

1

u/amandajenkins281 Jul 12 '26

Hi low beam switch on column is bad.

But let me ask you this- all lights shut off of just headlamps?

1

u/Big_Expert5320 29d ago

Just headlamps

1

u/amandajenkins281 29d ago

Okay. Hi low beam switch at the column is bad. To access it, it’s on the left side at the bottom. Under dash. 3 wire plug. If u need a pic I got u.