Hey all you out there you are gonna say fuse its a fuse, I think not there are a bunch of live feeds and grounds at the connector so I don't what the deal is here is a pic of the connector if any one has a diagram of what pin is for what you will save me a lot of trouble.

Sure it's not your headlight switch? That was the first indication that my switch was bad, the gauge cluster lights wouldn't come on.

Well my head lights work, but no I am not sure but I had 1/2 a dozed or so live 12v feeds and another bunch of good grounds. I tried to follow the circuitry on the back of the cluster and figure out which ones were dummy lights and which were illumination but it didn't get me any where the ones that I thought were corresponding seemed to be functional. could be a bad ground.

my headlights worked but my gauge lights did not. If a tinkered with the push-pull light switch I could get the gauge lights to come on but they would go out if I even brushed against the switch. Time for you to get out the circuit tester.

headlight switch

I had my digital VOM out i remember testing the switch in the past I don't think I had enough time though, the potentiometer in the dimmer probably just went. BTW I have the rocker switch type switch

Just stating the obvious: Have you twisted the dimmer switch? Oops, rocker type.

JamesC

I had the same problem in my 83, it turned out to be the dimmer switch. It's separate from the headlight switch, so you don't have to replace the whole thing. If you take it apart, you'll see a small circuit board with a carbon track and a metal contact that rides on it. On mine, the circuit board had actually cracked in half.

Sounds like the dimmer components. There are three parts really... The main headlight switch and the thumb wheel for the dimmer control. Then there is another component, basically a remote dimmer, and its hidden up in the dash on the passenger side of the steering column. Thats what happened to my 86. Its a pain in the butt to get to, but it has a heat sink on it and you can see it pretty easy once you know what to look for.

Here is what it looks like...I dont know why GM decided to hide this part, since it seems to go bad often. I never had an issue in my 87, but my 86 with 40k miles needed one. Go figure.



J.

P.S. You dont need a wiring diagram for the plugs behind the cluster... The grey wires are your illumination wires. I believe there are two feeds one in each plug... Been awhile since I spliced into them though.

thank you that was extremely helpful ghettocruiser I'll post an up date when I get to this. do you know the general area of that part and by any chance what kind of fasteners (I'll stop by the JY)
There is a ridiculous amount of s*** that doesn't work on this beast so I'm picking away at it.

Ummm.... its kind of a pain to get to. But I think it just had two screws with hex heads holding it in place. or maybe it was just the one on one side. I couldnt actually see its mounting place. Had to feel for it... If you look under your dash, on the passenger side of the steering column, there is alittle black box that has modules in it. I think the door chime thing is in there... few other things. Might be called the convience center or something weird. Anyway...that thing can swing down. The piece that you probably need is up above that. I have a crappy drawing of it in my service book, but I have no way of scanning it right now or I would.

But here is what I would do. First...skip the junk yard for this part. Autozone has it for 25 bucks. You dont want to go through all that trouble, and end up pulling a bad one. Second...when you get your new one, just reach up until you feel it. You wont be able to mistake it due to those cooling fins. I was able to get a screw driver up in there, and release the plug and pull the plug and wires down so you can get to them. Try the new part... That way if it doesnt fix your problem, you didnt go through all the trouble of pulling it out. When I did this, my dash lights started working, so I went ahead and replaced it.

There wasnt a whole lot on the boards that I could find about replacing it...so I just sort of winged it. Its just sort of a pain to get to. Im a big guy with huge hands though...so if youre on the smaller side, you might have an easier time of it.

If you need any more help, post up. Good luck and let us know if it fixes it!

J.

EDIT: Im going to try to hook you up with that diagram of where its it..... Hopefully I can do it.

haha... well I think it sorta worked. Its all I got, and Im pretty sure its the only diagram for that part... Hope it helps!





Lets you see generally where it is, and how the plug is oriented and all.

J.

YOU ARE THE MAN GHETTOCRUISER !!!! I got all of the dumie lights working today, what a head ache that was those little green light sockets don't make a good connection with the bulb so I had to tweek every one of them then they wouldn't make a good connection with the cluster. I tested all of them like this and then I tested the cluster with the bulbs in and all was good.

OH man.. Where you having issues with your idiot lights? Or the dash illumination? I assumed you were talking about the illumination part wasnt working... if not, I was mistaken. haha.

So did you get everything working that you needed to with the dash then?

J.

it was both you were very helpful i think you were correct it is not the dimmer

Cool man... Glad I could help you out some. Electrical gremlins are such a pain sometimes. Thats why when I did my LS1 swap, I said screw it and just made up my own harnesses for gauges and whatever else. Trying to trace GM's wiring can be frustrating.

Glad you got some of it going!

J.

Resurrecting an old thread....but thought I would help those with this same problem. The GM part number for the remote dimmer is 19955263 and the ACDelco number is D1509B. Hopefully this helps people in the future

Actually I would still go to the junk yard first. They are plentiful Firebirds and I got three or four out of cars all working in two days now I have two or three spares. I don know what the cost of the oem part is but if it is more than five bucks I still believe I made the right decision. It would be cool if someone could post the actual price of the oem part.

Sorry, I meant to put that in there. I paid $32 for it.

anyone know if the camaro would be the same way. i bought this part already but cant seem to find it under the dash.

can u zoom out a bit on that picture just to see how everything is oriented

No sorry camaros do not have that part, how much did it cost? you should look into the switch for your camaro.

the dimmer switch, the headlight switch????

If anyone wants to know i found the hot wire for the dash illumination on my 84 trans am. Its a grey wire on the black connector. Just figured this may help someone.

Well good work but it was already in the thread, and yes you are correct.