I suspect it might load the system too much also, and since I have 4 dimmers and only one working one and 3 1st gens, I'll go with a second dimmer.

Now to take the cluster apart and install blanks in the 2 circle for the 4 side gauges.

 

Okay, heres the pic of the two wires NOT to connect. Yea, its a bad pic, but you can see the wires.

 

yup been there done that now I have a hole in my dash where my dimmer switch was =/

 

it was the two wires under the shift boot - thanks guys!

 

I've been working on The White One, my new 84 GSL that I got on ebay a few months ago. The dash lights didn't work so I did a search and found this post about those two wires under the shift boot that look like they should go together but don't unless you have an automatic. Sure enough, they were hooked up, probably when the previous owner (or his mechanic) had the tranny out to do the clutch last year. Fortunately I had a spare dimmer, now everything is working fine. Thanks guys.

Ray

 

just bypassed mine... dam, was driving without them for nearly 2 years! but now i see artifacts coming through the cluster. good way to fix this?

 

this is definitely something every 1st gen owner goes through, if they have a manual or decide to take the tranny off for some reason. I love it.

 

Fellas, sorry for the 7 year old thread bump, but no point in me starting another thread when this one is 100% relevant to my issue right now.

I'm having the fuse popping symptoms with no dash illumination. I have a GSL-SE that didn't have a dimmer switch from the PO, so I bought a used one and it got super hot and blew the fuse. So next step was to just bypass the switch and jumped the red/green and red/blue together and it immediately blew the fuse also.

I checked the red and black bullet connectors under the shifter trim and they were NOT connected. While I was at it I pulled the radio and the harnesses all look like virgins, no funky splices or anything. I went ahead and checked the dimmer's harness and it was the same story there, all unmolested.

The fuse that keeps popping is the "TAIL ILLUM", and when it blows I get the previously mentioned symptoms: running lights stay off, and headlights stay up if rotated.

I'm at a loss here, where should I go next?

 

Literally just saved myself by stumbling upon this thread. Bought a new dimmer since mine was broken, put it in and keep popping fueses. Ripped half the dash appart, couldnt find anything wrong, put it back together. Found this, saw the post on the pins being connecetd under the shifter trim, old owner had them put together. Unpluged them and everything worked perfect!

 

Any chance you could take a picture of the location of the connectors? I thought I found the one's that are being referred too but I'm still popping fuses.

 

The two bullet connectors that should never be plugged into each other are under the shift boot on the left side. You'll know them because one has a red wire with a (?) stripe.

Mazda wiring is somewhat easy, red is almost always power and they use a different color stripe to say which kind of power.

 

Mine were on the right side tucked up under the radio, they were the only bullet style connectors I could find assuming they're wrapped together with the radio and HVAC harness.

 

They should not be, they are down in the shifter area because they are meant to plug into the automatic's shift indicator lighting.

I cut the ends off of mine and use them to illuminate my tach.

 

If you plug a new dimmer switch in with them wires connected,you'll fry the switch, I've been through four switches before I figured that out.them two little bullet connector wires under the shift boot, they are only supposed to be connected on an automatic car

 

I'll have to look again because for the life of me I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary with the harness.

 

Bringing this back up because I still haven't figured this out. I included 2 pictures of what I suspect are the bullet connectors in question and where the harness is coming from. I'm close to saying **** it and just wiring in a LED strip behind the gauges.

 

Those are for the lit automatic console, which your manual car doesn't need. Dont hook them up. If you do, you'll kill your dimmer, and the fuse.

 

Yes I know, they've been unhooked since I've owned the car, yet its STILL killing dimmer switches and fuses. I'm trying to to figure out why, but I wanted to double check those are the wires people have mentioned before.