First off……….thank you Cusser for helping someone on another forum to fix their headlight dimmer switch as that advise also got mine working (I jumped it).

So my high beams are not working and I want to try and clean the headlight stalk switch. Do I need to take the steering wheel off in order to remove that switch?

 

Yes, the steering wheel must be removed to access the headlight switch part of the combination switch (the switch on the left). Once the SW cover is removed, there's one big nut (21mm socket or lug wrench) to loosen; leave the nut on a few turns, and pull and wiggle the SW to get it off. If you need to, maybe Autozone has a loaner or inexpensive SW puller too (but you might need to get longer bolts for that). Then there's a coupler at the bottom (10mm socket) to remove the combination switch, removing the wire connectors when accessible.

But FIRST I need to ask if there's a clicking under the dash and/or do the low beams go off when you flip the stalk? If so, that would suggest that the high beam filaments in headlights are simply burned out, or dirty connections at the headlights themselves. If the low beams just stay on all the time when you move that switch, you might want to try to remove/re-install the headlight relay under the dash on the left side (might be a green box if memory serves), or substitute a working headlight relay if you have a spare (like I do) or other B-trucks like Axel Breaker. Axel Breaker has also taken apart and cleaned these headlight switches.

See file below, and note there are two types of headlight switches, one with a 4-connector, one with a 5-connector.

 

Thank you for all that info!

When I PUSH the stalk for high beams I get nothing. When I PULL the stalk I get high beams (and maybe low beams too……..I just see the brightness increase and beam height on the garage door goes up a few inches). No clicking under the dash that I can detect.

Getting the steering wheel off sounds like it might be an adventure.

 

You showed that the high beams work if the circuit gets completed. This video might help you to clean and fix your switch
No, it's pretty straightforward; I've removed about 6 steering wheels in the parts yard without the puller tool (but I'm in Arizona). One leaves the nut on a few threads so you won't have to see the dentist afterwards though !!!

 

That is the video that inspired me to clean instead of buy. Seems like a pretty straightforward job while taking great care with the fragile plastics. The only thing he could have shown is how that stalk pops out, hopefully that will be obvious.

Much appreciate the dental tip with the steering wheel nut and hopefully North Georgia weather is kind, like AZ, on interior parts seizing.

 

Here are a few pics of the headlight switch "points" that are inside of the headlight switch, and will get corroded from just turning them on & off over the years. Instead of buying a new, fairly expensive, and built at a much lesser quality (now-a-days!), you can remove the switch, take it apart (as the YT video shows above), and clean & lube it so it will work again, for 20 more years! I had a nice write-up on this at Mazdatrucking.com back in the day, but, it's gone unfortunately.

There is also two different versions of the HL switch......one has a 4-pin connection, and the other one is a 5-pin connection.......these pics are from the 4-pin type HL switch.....




4-Pin and "white" HL switch

HL switch removed from the Multi-Function Switch



HL switch "opened up" to access the dirty points so they can be cleaned good....



You can see how dirty they become, from over the years of use.....a good cleaning, and points filing with some fine sandpaper, will make them like new again!



You can also clean out the old grease that is in the "slide" contact area of the HL switch, and put some new wheel bearing grease back in that area.



The "points" can actually be removed from the HL switch so you can clean and file them easily.....















Back together again!

 

Wow, that is great info and pix!! This is on my “short list” to do in order to get my high beams working properly again. THANKS!!!

 

Here's some more information uploaded as PDF

Currently on my 1988, I'm using my factory combination switch but I swapped in a used "headlight switch portion" (the one on the driver side) after my own went bad, and my attempts to clean/repair it were unsuccessful.

O'Reilly lists the headlight switch portion only (4-tab, white housing) as #18-1826

 

Good info Cusser.

Just curious as to what happened, or what problems you had, when you tried to clean/repair your original HL switch. I'm going off of memory here, so I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the single "points" arm on my bad HL switch that I cleaned & fixed in the above pictures, had overheated and was no longer actually touching the other side of the points.......so while cleaning the HL switch up, I simply re-arched the copper/brass arm so that it would touch the other side of the points as it should when the headlights were in the ON position.

In this picture below, you can barely see that there seems to be a slight gap at the points for the single arm section.......unlike the points for the double arm section, as they seem to be touching as they should be. What do you think?

 

First thing that happened I noticed the dash illumination lights were off; for some reason I stopped and noticed the taillights were off too (didn't know then that dash and running lights were on same circuit). After trying to jiggle to turn lights on, I simply wired the running/dash lights to a switched circuit, no big deal.

Then a couple of years later my headlights went out too, tested that also as the switch. I think then is when I took it apart and tried to fix the switch, but since I had a used combination switch by then from the parts yard, I simply swapped out the headlight switch section, and has been OK since then.

There are some cheap new combination switches available on Ebay, have zero idea of their quality