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I've been through the search but I can't seem to find the remote dimmer. I have the lower dash apart. There's a big blue chime box and a couple of what look like flasher relays but that's it. It's a 1987 Firebird so I'm not sure if something is different with this car. Bottom line is my dash lights don't work. No fuse is blown. All the exterior lights come on and the interior lights work when the door opens. The wheel on the light switch is controlling voltage as tested on the green/white wire. The light switch light is also not coming on. Any ideas as to where or what this remote dimmer looks like?
I've been through the search but I can't seem to find the remote dimmer. I have the lower dash apart. There's a big blue chime box and a couple of what look like flasher relays but that's it. It's a 1987 Firebird so I'm not sure if something is different with this car. Bottom line is my dash lights don't work. No fuse is blown. All the exterior lights come on and the interior lights work when the door opens. The wheel on the light switch is controlling voltage as tested on the green/white wire. The light switch light is also not coming on. Any ideas as to where or what this remote dimmer looks like?
Never mind, found the bastard. Who puts a part there?
Great that you found it, I thought I found a pic of where it was, but it was for the wrong car. My pic above is the right one of what it looks like though.
Great that you found it, I thought I found a pic of where it was, but it was for the wrong car. My pic above is the right one of what it looks like though.
Yeah what you posted is the part. My problem seems to be short to ground. The grey wire from the fuse box up to the light switch grounds out. Weird thing is the lights still work for a while, then the fuse blows.
Curious. Would a bad remote dimmer cause the gauge fuse to blow? Mine will run fine for quite some time, then the fuse will just go. Thinking of just replacing it seeing as I now have access to it.
Curious. Would a bad remote dimmer cause the gauge fuse to blow? Mine will run fine for quite some time, then the fuse will just go. Thinking of just replacing it seeing as I now have access to it.
Most likely not, I'd be lookin for a chafed wire somewhere. As to the transistor, yes indeed they can go shorted, a transistor's two main failure modes are shorted & open. Thing is, when they go open that can be an intermittent failure, brought on by such things as vibration and heating/cooling cycles, but as a lifelong electronic hobbyist I think I can count on one finger how many times I've seen a transistor with a true intermittent short. In other words, in my experience, once a transistor shorts, that's it, it's shorted full time.
One important thing to consider here, the "gauge" fuse runs a LOT of stuff other than just the gauges, for example all of the underhood emissions stuff get their power from it too (pink/black wire). BUT! the dash lights, as controlled by the remote dimmer, aren't something that the gauge fuse powers, those are fed power by the "inst lps" fuse instead
Here ya go, just look at all the stuff the gauges fuse (pink/black wire) powers (bottom RH side of the diagram). If any of your emissions stuff has been deleted, you may want to check that those connectors aren't laying on the engine, shorting out when they feel the mood....
Last edited by OrangeBird; Feb 17, 2024 at 10:45 AM.
Reason: clarify my point.....
Most likely not, I'd be lookin for a chafed wire somewhere. As to the transistor, yes indeed they can go shorted, a transistor's two main failure modes are shorted & open. Thing is, when they go open that can be an intermittent failure, brought on by such things as vibration and heating/cooling cycles, but as a lifelong electronic hobbyist I think I can count on one finger how many times I've seen a transistor with a true intermittent short. In other words, in my experience, once a transistor shorts, that's it, it's shorted full time.
One thing to consider here, the "gauge" fuse runs a LOT of stuff other than just the gauges, all of the underhood emissions stuff get power from it too (pink/black wire if I recall correctly). BUT! the dash lights, as controlled by the remote dimmer, aren't something that the gauge fuse powers, those are fed power by the "inst lamps" fuse instead
Here ya go, just look at all the stuff the gauges fuse (pink/black wire) powers (bottom RH side of the diagram). If any of your emissions stuff has been deleted, you may want to check that those connectors aren't laying on the engine, shorting out when they feel the mood....
I may have found the issue...I hope. There was a bundle behind the Alpine head unit that had a couple cut wires from the old stock harness. One of them was grey, which is an illumination wire. I'm thinking the end of it may have come into contact with the cage of the stereo and possibly grounded out. Because my gauge light would be fine for months then go out. This time they were fine until I moved the head unit to get at an RCA. All of a sudden I had no gauge lights again.
I may have found the issue...I hope. There was a bundle behind the Alpine head unit that had a couple cut wires from the old stock harness. One of them was grey, which is an illumination wire. I'm thinking the end of it may have come into contact with the cage of the stereo and possibly grounded out. Because my gauge light would be fine for months then go out. This time they were fine until I moved the head unit to get at an RCA. All of a sudden I had no gauge lights again.
And there ya go, you did find it
It's funny, I had meant to mention earlier to check around any aftermarket installed electrical bits like a radio or an alarm/remote start, but then I got sidetracked by the gauges fuse thing.
