88 B250 No lights

[dodgnthis]

My 88 B250 started having an intermittent loss of headlights / taillights / dashlights. After considerable head-scratching and reading posts on this and the Dodge truck forum, I began checking for continuity in all the wiring involved. The wiring passes through the firewall by means of a large square, 2 piece plastic plug which has a central bolt holding the two sides together. I assume this is intended to be a watertight connection, but in my case, when opened (after removing the battery to gain access), it was very wet inside and there was considerable corrosion on the terminals (spade) at the lower part of the block. In fact, that is exactly where the purple wires going to the headlights were located as well as two large (12 gauge) red wires which were so corroded they actually fell away from their connection. After cleaning everything, and reassembling, all the lights now work, and for some strange reason (I suspect the repaired red wires) the van now runs smoother! Hope this helps someone with what I have seen, by the posts, is a common problem.