my dash lights went out (all of them) and i cant figure out what the deal is. fuses are good, and everything else works fine. any idea's?

 

Fuses under the dash AND the hood are good?

Check to make sure the dash light rheastat (aka dimmer switch) isn't turned all the way down

 

dimmer is good. checked both boxes.

 

The bulbs blown?

 

i considered that, but all of them at once? not likely. i really dont wana rip the dash apart. lol

 

If it is the case, you could tear that ish down in less than 30. It is unlikely but if all else has failed, and you have limited some electrical malfuction to the gauge cluster what else can you do

 

yeah im hoping its just a ground that came loose or something.

 

hmmm... all of the lights... so all of the indicator lights AND the back-lights that come on with your head lights? or just one of those two group or lights?

you're dimmer function works by adjusting the resistance of the GROUND to the lights. It's possible the dimmer switch itself is bad, or has a bad ground itself; does the light for you climate controls work? if not, I would look at that dimmer switch, or the wiring to it, as the cuplrit


if it's the indicator lights, I'd pull the cluster out and make sure that for whatever reason one of the plugs didn't vibrate out or something. the input to those lights run off all sorts of circuts that all come to gether in the wiring harness there, so it would have to be a common ground, or a common 12v + coming into the cluster there that has lost connection

 

the dimmer switch itself being bad is a possibility, as was stated before, pull the switch and bypass it really quick before you tear apart the dash, i think it would be worth a shot. When this happened to me i tore the dash apart, didn't find any problems, then checked the dimmer and realized that was the culprit.

 

Try cleaning your bat terminals first and if not.... then your gonna have to get to tearin down...

 

all the indicator lights work on the cluster its just the back lights to the cluster, altimeter, heater controls etc. ill deff checkout the dimmer switch though thanks.

terminals are new

 

yeah, definately sounds like the dimmer circut to me, so long as all the other lights outside the vehicle as working (parking lights and head-lights). if the outside lights are not working either, and the fuses are good, the only other logical thing would be the switch assymbely on the column

let us know what you find; good luck!

 

yep everything else works. So if it is the dimmer, whats the best way to go about fixing it? someone mentioned bypassing it? thanks..

 

yeah I honestly can't remember how many wires are running into the switch itself, but I believe it's only 2. in which case it's easy to bypass it. just unplug it, and make a jumper wire (using a 3"-4" length of wire and crimp a male terminal on each end) to connect the two ends together so full power will go through it. then you'll have the lights untill you get around to replacing the switch. that's also a good way to test to see if it's the switch

 

awesome, thanks ill give it a whirl in the morning

 

yeah, it's really hard to tell from any pictures that I personally have, but by looking at this one, it CAN'T be more than 2 wires





should be pretty much the same on your 87

 

cool, looks like you had fun that day

 

lmao, yeah, all that to install a brushed aluminum gauge bezel, that's since been done away with in favor of an SR5 cluster

 

well it was indeed the dimmer, thanks guys your the best. the fix was really easy though, b/c all i had to do was plug it back in. lol! seriously i dont know how that thing came undone. now im surrounded by a sea of pretty green lights

 

good stuff! glad we could help

don't you just love it when it's something simple and stupid like that