I have picked up a 1990 4runner. fixed the motor, frontend and going thru some odds and ends. when I hooked up the cig lighter the dash lights quit. I have power to the two polls in the dimmer switch but no lights at all in the dash. All the fuses in drivers side pannel are good as well as the ones under the hood. Please help and thanks in advance, Mike

 

my light had stopped and ended up being a bad grounds so i ran new ones, not the best idea to run new but i didnt want to trace the old ones,

 

Well, the dimmer rheostat is typically what supplies the ground connection to all the dimming dash lights. So you should make sure there is a solid ground on one side of the dimmer and continuity between the other side of the dimmer and one side of the dash light bulbs. All those lights are fed power from a separate circuit off the headlight/combo switch. Measuring voltage at the dimmer, assuming it is the typical ground-connected version, is generally not a good test result.

Try disconnecting the lighter and see if anything changes. The lighter often has an illuminated surround hooked up to the dimmer. Maybe you had those connections messed up.