Hi All,
Vehicle 83 CJ-7
Painless harness
wiring and switch 3 mos. old.

While driving to the store today, my headlight switch started to
smoke.Panic anyone? I figured out it was the dimmer control for my
gauges. It has a 5 amp fuse for it which did not blow and I am only
drawing 2.9 amps when the lights are turned to their brightest. It was
a brand new switch; I only have 1000 miles on the CJ since completing
resto. It seems to have charred where the rheostat touches the
contact at the max position. My gauges are all autometer (6) and
heater control/washer lights and the ARB lights and all of my
indicator lights are LED (4wd, direction, check enfine, etc) so that
current draw is minimal. Everything worked great up until now. 2.9
amps gives about 36 watts or so through the switch. Is this
acceptable? Could it have just been a bad switch/rheostat?
Thanks

 

Could be a bad switch or could be you are running non stock halogen
headlights

The whole switch will over heat and melt down if you are using halogen
lights. Depending on how much over stock they are they can fry very
fast.

An 83 CJ was designed for regular lights. The switches die pretty fast
if high powered lights are put in without relays.

One friend with an 82 just killed his dash dimmer part and the switch
smoked out and he only added one halogen headlight as a replacement with
the other a regular light.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

csperlein wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> Vehicle 83 CJ-7
> Painless harness
> wiring and switch 3 mos. old.
>
> While driving to the store today, my headlight switch started to
> smoke.Panic anyone? I figured out it was the dimmer control for my
> gauges. It has a 5 amp fuse for it which did not blow and I am only
> drawing 2.9 amps when the lights are turned to their brightest. It was
> a brand new switch; I only have 1000 miles on the CJ since completing
> resto. It seems to have charred where the rheostat touches the
> contact at the max position. My gauges are all autometer (6) and
> heater control/washer lights and the ARB lights and all of my
> indicator lights are LED (4wd, direction, check enfine, etc) so that
> current draw is minimal. Everything worked great up until now. 2.9
> amps gives about 36 watts or so through the switch. Is this
> acceptable? Could it have just been a bad switch/rheostat?
> Thanks

 

Could be a bad switch or could be you are running non stock halogen
headlights

The whole switch will over heat and melt down if you are using halogen
lights. Depending on how much over stock they are they can fry very
fast.

An 83 CJ was designed for regular lights. The switches die pretty fast
if high powered lights are put in without relays.

One friend with an 82 just killed his dash dimmer part and the switch
smoked out and he only added one halogen headlight as a replacement with
the other a regular light.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

csperlein wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> Vehicle 83 CJ-7
> Painless harness
> wiring and switch 3 mos. old.
>
> While driving to the store today, my headlight switch started to
> smoke.Panic anyone? I figured out it was the dimmer control for my
> gauges. It has a 5 amp fuse for it which did not blow and I am only
> drawing 2.9 amps when the lights are turned to their brightest. It was
> a brand new switch; I only have 1000 miles on the CJ since completing
> resto. It seems to have charred where the rheostat touches the
> contact at the max position. My gauges are all autometer (6) and
> heater control/washer lights and the ARB lights and all of my
> indicator lights are LED (4wd, direction, check enfine, etc) so that
> current draw is minimal. Everything worked great up until now. 2.9
> amps gives about 36 watts or so through the switch. Is this
> acceptable? Could it have just been a bad switch/rheostat?
> Thanks

 

Could be a bad switch or could be you are running non stock halogen
headlights

The whole switch will over heat and melt down if you are using halogen
lights. Depending on how much over stock they are they can fry very
fast.

An 83 CJ was designed for regular lights. The switches die pretty fast
if high powered lights are put in without relays.

One friend with an 82 just killed his dash dimmer part and the switch
smoked out and he only added one halogen headlight as a replacement with
the other a regular light.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

csperlein wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> Vehicle 83 CJ-7
> Painless harness
> wiring and switch 3 mos. old.
>
> While driving to the store today, my headlight switch started to
> smoke.Panic anyone? I figured out it was the dimmer control for my
> gauges. It has a 5 amp fuse for it which did not blow and I am only
> drawing 2.9 amps when the lights are turned to their brightest. It was
> a brand new switch; I only have 1000 miles on the CJ since completing
> resto. It seems to have charred where the rheostat touches the
> contact at the max position. My gauges are all autometer (6) and
> heater control/washer lights and the ARB lights and all of my
> indicator lights are LED (4wd, direction, check enfine, etc) so that
> current draw is minimal. Everything worked great up until now. 2.9
> amps gives about 36 watts or so through the switch. Is this
> acceptable? Could it have just been a bad switch/rheostat?
> Thanks