ok after 5 hours installing my speedo cable. everything works fine, but then it came night time, so i pull the *** to turn on my headlights.. and then theirs trouble.. my tach stops, all my gauges drop to 0 except the temp gauge, it peaks out.

my blinker symbols are stuck on and my highbeams symbol is stuck on

what is going on? did i jiggle something loose? has anyone else delt with this before?? PLEASE HELP or im just gonna take it to a mechanic because i dont deal with electronics at all..


but hey at least my speedo kind of works now.

 

First, check all the fuses underneath the dash. Sometimes, when a circuit is broken, the electricity is rerouted through another circuit (which can cause shorts). It's unlikely that it would occur with a blown fuse, but anything is possible. It's a simple check.

Since you said that the problem only occurs when you turn on the headlights, start there with the troubleshooting. The headlight switch is a multiple-connection unit that completes the parking light circuit on the first click, and the headlight and parking light circuit on the second click. Do the gauges go out on the first click? If so, then the short is coming from the parking light output on the switch. If the gauges go out on the second click, then the short is coming from the headlight output of the switch.

I doubt that it's a problem with the headlight switch internally (which is a good thing -- they're a pain to replace). How much of the dash did you disassemble when you put the new speedo cable in? It's possible that the printed circuit on the back of the gauge cluster is shorting to one of the outputs from the headlight switch.

I'm assuming that the gauges still work when the lights are off, right?