All right. I've got an 85 RX7 with the 13B engine, 4 disc brakes, yada, yada, yada. The popup lights work. The high-beam lights work, and when I turn on the parking lights, the clock even lights up bright orange...and that's about it. The entire gauge cluster is black with slight hints of orange poking out whenever I run under a lamppost.

I've checked all the fuses. They're all good, but looking under there at the fuse diagram, I couldn't find one labled "Instrument Cluster" or "dash." What's the deal? Is there another fuse box? Also, all my indicator lights (gas, oil, etc) work and so does the high beam indicator. Do I have to take apart the dash to look for a lose wire or is there a fuse I'm missing here?

TheBattlePenguin

 

that is odd. maybe the previous owner got pissed a lot and punched the cluster hood, jarring the lights, and killing all the bulbs, lol. those lights might be in a series and the first one is shorted or something. i left my haynes at my parents so thats all i have.

 

Ok, first of all, is the dimmer switch all the way off? Thats the easiest thing to fix . The same dimmer switch sometimes gets "fried" because people go and hook up wires they think need to go together (not a good idea on this car). To check to see if someone has done that on your car, do the following:

1. Remove shift ****.

2. Pull plastic piece that surrounds shifter out by pulling up on it on the 2nd 4th Reverse side of it. There are only two spring clips that hold it in place.

3. If the shift boot is attached to the plastic piece (they rarely are), you have to unscrew the silver piece at the top at the same time you take it all off...If its not, just take the plastic piece off, and take the boot off seperatly.

4. There will be a wiring harness under there with two wires, both with "bullet" type plugs. They should NOT be plugged in. If they are, your dimmer switch is shot. The wires are for the auto tranny. I would suggest unplugging them, and heading to a junk yard to find a new dimmer switch. Hope that helps.

~T.J.

 

you should blow a fuse before the dimmer switch. don't ask how i know............

 

Sounds like the lights are there and working, just not put in properly. I would surmise that someone has had that panel open and didn't bother to pop the bulbs back into their recepticles, hence you seeing a faint glow there but regular illumination on the clock etc (the dimmer would dim all of these, so I doubt it's that)

Auto dash bulbs often fit into free-floating sockets which are then twisted into their proper mounting places. An example of this is the fan/temperature ***** and ashtray light on the 84-85.

Open the instrument panel and make sure the bulb sockets are snapped into their proper retainers. If not, make it so. Hopefully this is it as it's an easy and free fix.

 

1) The dimmer switch is all the way up...actually even if I move it the clock still stays at the same brightness.

2) The "dim glow" was refering to the fact that street lights reflect off the orange...there is no light being emitted at all from down there.

3) I looked under the shifter boot and found the 4 port harness and the two crimp wires...totally disconnected from anything

This weekend I'm just going to take apart the dash and make sure there arn't any shorts in the wires

Thanks

 

u can just splice the wires together in the dimmer switch, dont use the black wire, if i remember correctley, i fried something in my cluster so i had to solder directly onto the circuit board..good luck