Clearance lights not working - 01 International 3800 (dog nose)

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

So we noticed a while back our clearance lights were fluttering - we rarely ever drive at night so it wasn’t a huge deal immediately - now they don’t work at all and we have inspection coming up soon.
We replaced the relay with a new one and they still don’t work. We aren’t sure what’s causing the issue - we pulled a few bulbs and none of the bulbs look blown or broken either. Really scratching our heads with this.

We do know our running/clearance lights are connected to our day running lights in the headlights. Just wondering if someone else experienced this and what you did to fix it. Thanks

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by Whiskey.Wilderness

So we noticed a while back our clearance lights were fluttering - we rarely ever drive at night so it wasn’t a huge deal immediately - now they don’t work at all and we have inspection coming up soon.
We replaced the relay with a new one and they still don’t work. We aren’t sure what’s causing the issue - we pulled a few bulbs and none of the bulbs look blown or broken either. Really scratching our heads with this.

We do know our running/clearance lights are connected to our day running lights in the headlights. Just wondering if someone else experienced this and what you did to fix it. Thanks

It sounds like a classic case of a bad (loose, corroded, or worn) connection in the system. Could be a junction point, switch, fuse or panel, as well as other things.



Does the fluttering occur while sitting still or only while driving (bumping) down the road?
Does it occur in all clearance lights at the same time or only some? I assume all which means it's not a connection buried in your walls (good thing).

Do any other systems show signs of varying electrical supply?


One way to narrow down the area of the problem would be to disconnect the circuit in the electrical panel and provide a known good power source (fused for sure, switched if you like) and see if the symptom continues. If it stops you know the problem is from that point "forward". If it continues the issue is beyond that point.
Our international is a 96 with the DT444E. If you have the same outside electrical panel as we do you should see a bus bar inside on the far left. One of those circuits is the clearance lights and that would be a good point to first try supplying a new power source to the clearance lights. Just be sure to pull the wire from the bus bar, pull your power source from an appropriate point (sufficiently fused and not something computer related). The large solenoids in that same panel would work.
Our rig had the right front over wheel turn signal inop and it wasnt the bulb or fixture. On troubleshooting we found that the fire was completely missing further back in the harness. In fact there wasn't even a pin in the molex connector at the right rear of the bus. No idea how long it had been that way but a wire run across from the harness on the left side (we hadn't built out yet).

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

It sounds like a classic case of a bad (loose, corroded, or worn) connection in the system. Could be a junction point, switch, fuse or panel, as well as other things.



Does the fluttering occur while sitting still or only while driving (bumping) down the road?
Does it occur in all clearance lights at the same time or only some? I assume all which means it's not a connection buried in your walls (good thing).

Do any other systems show signs of varying electrical supply?


One way to narrow down the area of the problem would be to disconnect the circuit in the electrical panel and provide a known good power source (fused for sure, switched if you like) and see if the symptom continues. If it stops you know the problem is from that point "forward". If it continues the issue is beyond that point.
Our international is a 96 with the DT444E. If you have the same outside electrical panel as we do you should see a bus bar inside on the far left. One of those circuits is the clearance lights and that would be a good point to first try supplying a new power source to the clearance lights. Just be sure to pull the wire from the bus bar, pull your power source from an appropriate point (sufficiently fused and not something computer related). The large solenoids in that same panel would work.
Our rig had the right front over wheel turn signal inop and it wasnt the bulb or fixture. On troubleshooting we found that the fire was completely missing further back in the harness. In fact there wasn't even a pin in the molex connector at the right rear of the bus. No idea how long it had been that way but a wire run across from the harness on the left side (we hadn't built out yet).

They are currently out - we noticed that our front left signal light will do turn signal but the running light is not working - right one works properly, headlights work properly .

We replaced the relay - checked power at the breaker - all good - so now we are stumped. All connections in the breaker box are clean.

But yes all of the clearance lights on all sides are out.

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

We replaced the relay, we checked power in all the breakers, checked bulbs (none broken), checked what wires we could (no damage), connections look clean.

Our clearance lights seem to be connected to the headlight switch. No separate switch in the dash for them.

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

We tried changing the power cable over to a different 15min breaker now the lights work for a few seconds before turning off, one of the bulbs is bad in the clearance lights as well l

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by Whiskey.Wilderness

We tried changing the power cable over to a different 15min breaker now the lights work for a few seconds before turning off, one of the bulbs is bad in the clearance lights as well l

I think you mean that you moved the clearance light circuit to a different 15 AMP fuse? Or do you have the circuit breaker type fuses?



The clearance lights should be wired in parallel so one being out shouldn't affect all of them.


On the bright side you know the problem isn't between the batteries and the point where you moved the power.


If you have circuit breaker type fuses you could have the "auto reset" type and THAT could be the issue. It could be either a bad circuit breaker that is tripping at too low a draw.....it could be the wrong one though 15 amps sounds legit..... of it could be doing it's job and you have a something down stream that is arcing and causing both the flickering and the circuit breaker to kill the circuit then reset itself for another flicker.