Suddenly no headlights, no movement on gauge cluster

[stxbronco72]

Went to fire up the Bronco after the winter weather and no headlights or movement in the gauge cluster. My running lights and the gauge lights are both functioning normally. Any ideas?

~JB

 

[DirtDonk]

No movement in the gauges means that either your power to the IVR is dead (comes directly from the ignition switch's back stud/post), or the IVR is dead.
Perhaps it's just temporarily dead, due to being cold and damp for awhile? Might play around with it for a bit and see if anything changes.
But verify first that you have battery power at the back of the ignition switch. Easy enough to get to if you're still somewhat limber!

For the headlights, the most likely culprit is the floor mounted dimmer switch. Also easy to test.
But other things, such as the headlight circuit breaker could be at fault too.
Are the brake lights working? If so, then the battery is getting power to the light switch. The brake light switch gets it's power from a wire directly from the headlight switch.
I don't know for a fact that the power to the brake light switch is also protected under the circuit breaker, but maybe someone here can confirm or deny that.

Of course, as unlikely as it is, both headlights could be burned out too!
Start at the floor switch. Pull the connector if you need to, but check that power is coming in to the center wire when the light switch is pulled out.

Paul