hey maybe some of you are familiar with what i'm talking about
my '97 dodge dakota had the dash and tail lights go out the other day, i assume that these are on the same circuit and so i checked the fuses. they all seem to be okay, but a traded out the ones concerned, just to be sure. i pulled apart the dash and was able to make the lights work when i hotwire the switch, but not through the switch, so i got a new one, and its still the same. i can short circuit the inputs on the back of the switch, and have the lights both dash and tail work. but neither the old switch or the new will work to turn them on. my head lights and everything else are fine. this really has me stumped. is their some wayto tell if my switch is good? thanks in advance

if you have an ohmmeter (even one of those $10 radioshark ones), you can test it that way. Switches are pretty easy to test.