I already posted this a while back...but ill do it again.....i lost my gauge lights and now its a bitch to drive at night....i really could use any advice to getting them back.....i already check all wire connections, fuseable links...and the dimmer ****....all are fine....so i dont know what else it could be....could i have burned out all 4 bulbs in the dash somehow....i need advice to fixing this problem asap...thanks...parker

 

Check the bulbs too

 

what year? and i bet its your dimmer...

 

alright the help hasnt been that helpful yet.....the car is an 82....(read the sig)...and what if its not the bulbs and the dimmer is bad....can i just cut the wires on the dimmer and then just connect them together to complete the circuit and just get rid of the dimmer all together.....b/c truthfully i dont think i know anyone that actually dims their lights......any more ideas will be appreciated....thx.....parker

 

Yes, you can do that but I am not sure how exactly. I know that people have done it before and have posted how.

 

First thing, take the cluster out and check the bulbs. Its rather unlikely that you have blown all 4 at once, but taking the cluster out is a simple procedure, just unscrew the screws and yank it out. Then check for damage to the circutboard, it should be relativly easy to se if one of the connections are bad.

Get a hold of a digital multimeter and measure the power into the cluster, if you have power, its the board or the bulbs, if not, the fault is further back in the electrical system.

Measure your way down the electrical system while constantly looking for bad wiring that could distort the power in any way. If all this is fine, try changing the fuses, even if they look fine. Measure if you have power to the fuse holder, and so on.

If all this fails, rip the interior out, junk the dashboard and make it a racecar! (irony)

 

If you are really poking at straws, you could just rip out the bulbs and stick in your own dash lighting system heh...

So you say that you think the dimmer is ok, if this is so, well, somewhere there is a connection that tells those dash lights to come on, when you turn the headlights on. I've had plenty of trouble with my collumn instrumentation. I found pulling it all apart and sanding back the contact points helped fix a problem of mine where the high beams would hold on temporarily but not lock... maybe its something in there.

Also regarding the dimmer, aren't there just 2 wires going to it? If so, joining them should mean all globes would be at full brightness, assuming everything else is working.

Good luck,

 

see im thinking ill do the dimmer mod first....if this doesnt work ill might just run out and buy some led's and stick them on the top of the cluster so that i hit a switch and they turn on to light up the gauges....i really dont want that tho b/c its ghetto as ****....trying to make the car look clean....but if all else fails maybe ill just rewire the whole damn thing....thx guys...parker