how do you bypass a dimmer switch
 

how do you bypass a dimmer switch??? i tore the switch out of the dash, i see a red/blue a red/green and a black wire.????

One is power in/out and ground. I would try to hook up the 2 power wires together and see.. can't hurt anything

burns out the fuse

Check each wire with a voltmeter. Black should be ground. Current should flow from the red/green to the red/blue to complete the circuit. If the fuse cooks when you connect the red/green and red/blue, I bet the red/blue wire is grounding somewhere.

You can get 1st gen wiring diagrams in PDF format here:

http://www.wankel.net/~krwright/cars/rx7/manuals.html

Hope this helps.

Andy

has anyone ever gotten this to work? we tried this and blew the fuse as well.

I will check my switch wiring tomorrow and let you guys know.

yes it does work. only reason i know is cause mine didn't work. so i tried hot wireing it and got real hot and blew fuse. well went through all the wiring on that circuite and found a wire behind the radio the previous owner hooked up to a ground. fixed that and hot wired it again. works good.

so if i blew a fuse doing this...something in the system is grounded out...hmm

also, that PDF link up there is a dud :(

There sould be three wires on the dimmer switch (IIRC)

One wire is not used and the other two get jumped together.

I figured it out by trial and error.

Just make sure you have a couple of spare fuses on hand.

Remember that this give you interior lights at full brightness.

It does work.

Good Luck

A

Okay, I went and checked as promised. Its red/blue and red/green that are connected to eachother. I just put a switch in between, but thats not even necessary.

Wow. On the SA's all you have to do is unplug the two wires from the dimmer (rotary variable resistor) and plug them into each other.

wired them together and blew a fuse when i turned on the lights. replaced fuse and turned on lights again - blown fuse :(

this means there is a short somewhere? whats the likely suspect?

totally hear you on the SA - i tried pulling the "dimmer switch" from my junked SA and quickly saw it was useless to me on the FB

You wouldn't have happened to connect the two wires under the shift boot, have you? They're for auto cars, and when those two wires are connected, the dimmer switch gets blown. They look like they're supposed to be connected, but they're not.

The server for that link was down temporarily, should be up now or soon if not.

-dave

hmm I have mine bypassed as well and it works just fine. It was simple to do and no blown fuses for me...

Im glad someone told the answer, I didnt want to have to dig around and read wiring diagrams so I waited a few days to see if anyone else knew. I knew it could be done as I had done in it my 85 GSL when the switch went bad. However, I couldnt tell you which color wires I used because Im color blind, lol. I did it by trial and error also.

~T.J.

can you take a pic of these wires or tell me approximately what they look like? i personally didnt connect any thing like that but the prior owner may have.

also, under the center console there are two fat wires, one black and one white - what are those for?

Coiled wire (like a phone handset cord), with large connectors that have 6-7 pins each? If so, congrats, your car was originally equiped with the premium sound system.
As for the wires that everyone is refering to under the shifter boot, mine are actually a little further up. Behind the upper part of the shifter surround, close the the small storage bin that was installed in place of the factory equalizer.

Mine were directly under the shift boot. One has a male end, and the other has a female end. They looked so lonely I thought that they should be together. Resulted in a very ugly breakup.....

what all is part of the "premium sound system", lol

i will check those wires this evening when i get home. hopefully such is the cause of my electrical woes. if not....commence tears

AM/FM Cassette stereo, with a seperate graphic equalizer, a 25W amp (or was it 2 of them?), and a "joystick" in the center console, for the balance/fader. Along with 4 speakers, 2 in the front "kick panels", and 2 in the rear cargo area.
Was a nice system, for the time. By todays standards, it sucks. A complete and fully functioning system is a rare thing some 20-25 years down the road, but they do exist.

I believe the wires for the auto shifter light, had been previously hooked together on my car. Dimmer has been bypassed. That could also be why they are in a different location currently. Likely the person what connected them, later moved them to prevent it happening again.

A lot of people have that problem, and connect those 2 wires. And yeah , it is the wires for the light in the auto shifter. Mine used to be an auto, so I also have a small harness down there for the O/D switch. But I will take a pic and post it later today.

Not to hijack this thread, but while the subject of dimmer switches is up:

I am adding 5 Autometer gauges to my car, and would really like to be able to dim them. Especially the ones on the A-pillar.

Will the dimmer switch support 5 more gauges, and which wire should I tap for power?

If it is not feasible, then I will need to install a potentiometer in the dash panel with the gauges.

I also need to find a new momentary switch for the line lock, but that's another story in itself. :D

It would be best to not try tapping into the dash light circuit for the 5 new gauges. Instead, use a relay to carry the load, and you can run a second dimmer for those gauges. The extra load of the new gauges *could* overload the dash light circuit, and cause a malfunction.