• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

Military looking switch under my dash

NeslundB

New member
16
0
0
Location
Mi
Today I was tearing apart the underside of my dash because my windshield wipers stopped working, so I went after the switch. I ended up find this big ol noise maker hanging under the dash, and it's obviously some sort of military gizmo. I disconnected it and without it I have no headlights or interior lights, but everything else works, and I didn't think I should play around with the switches on it. Thanks
image.jpegimage (2).jpegimage (1).jpeg
 

Warthog

Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
13,774
233
63
Location
OKC, OK
The name is "3 lever switch". It controls the regular headlights and the blackout lights.
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,810
113
Location
GA Mountains
Should have an oval shaped hole in the dash for it. The 266-10 may have a section that covers its ops.
 

NeslundB

New member
16
0
0
Location
Mi
There's no hole in my dash for it...is there anything I can do with it? Or is it run only for headlights and horn?
 

Digger09

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
728
6
18
Location
New Jersey
Does this truck have a military dashboard or civi one? Wonder if it was changed and someone added in a civi headlight switch and just wired it to the military switch and stuck it under the dash.
 

doghead

4 Star General /Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
26,246
1,179
113
Location
NY
Indeed, A picture of his dash may help.

So will him looking at the TM that ends with -10. Then he can tell us if his dash looks different.
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,810
113
Location
GA Mountains
Let me take this for a ride. As equipped, your M880 came from the factory without a blackout light system. DOD saw the need to retrofit some of them and TACOM came up with a kit. The kit consisted of that 3 lever light switch you have, a harness, 1 blackout drive light that should be somewhere in the grill and 4 little rectangular lights, 2 at the front and 2 at the rear. The kit instructions show to cut the oval hole on the right upper dash in that little area that is angled towards the driver. The kit was obviously installed but 2 things may have occurred. Either the dash was replaced or the FD that had it, put a panel in its place with their own switches for the FD nighmare harness. The pic shows your switch in the serivce drive mode. This mode is necessary for normal operation. Voluteer firefighters not trained in 3 lever operations often fooled with the switch and presto, no lights. A trip to the mechanic parts changer netted correcting the switch. Many FDs found the need to remove the levers as your are, to avoid this. In your case they cemented their position bu dropping the switch behind the dash.

Now, blackouts are actually not blackout but a low level light so that vehicle operations can be carried out with less of a chance of aerial detection. The BO Drive light lets out a miniscule amount of light.

F Y I, the 266-10 isn't readily available in PDF unless you buy it on disc, a good investment I might add!
 

3rdaavbn

Member
215
3
18
Location
Suwanee/Georgia
Black out lights are from my time in the Corps. Pre-night vision goggles. When driving off road at night, all you had to do was to follow the "black out lights" of the vehicle in front of you. They cannot be seen with the naked eye, but quite brite with infrared goggles. 30 year old stuff.
 

bikeman

Well-known member
2,894
502
113
Location
Ft. Bragg, NC
If you do not have an M880 manual, it may be a benefit to at least scan through the M1008 series manuals as that is one of the most similar vehicles. for this particular instance, pay attention to the section on lighting and dashboard/normal operations.
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks