Instrument panel

[Tweek]

I keep blowing my inst. panel fuses, when I first bought the car at Carlisle a few weeks ago, they worked for about 10 minutes at night then blew a fuse. I replaced the fuse and no troubles for 3 days, now, it blew agian, and as soon as I turn the parking lights on... any ideas?

 

[Tweek]

I did some more testing, I can pull the headlight switch on to the parking lights, IF, I turn the dimmer down, but as soon as I turn the dimmer to make the dash lights come on the fuse blows. All parking lamps on the outside of the car work. I used a continuity tester to check for power at the fuse, when the parking lamps are on, there is power to one side, and when off there is none??? I'm sooo confused, could the switch that operates the lights be shorting?

 

[Yoda]

Tweek,

If you move the dimmer switch and the fuse blows, my guess would be the switch is bad. Does the switch feel warm at all if you run it for the 10 minutes before the fuse blows?

I would guess there are shorted windings in the reostat.

BudD

 

[Yoda]

Just thought of something.. try to move the switch to either full right or full left then see if it blows the fuse when you turn on the headlights.. at full right (I think) the dash lights should be at their brightest, full left and they should be at there dimest (sp).. maybe by leaving it one of these two positions you can run it without blowing the fuse..

BudD

 

[sac001]

This may sound odd but...

Remove the Center Gauge Cluster Bezel, and check the circuit board on the back of the Gauges. When I first bought my 80, the Center Gauge lights didn't work. When I pulled the Bezel to replace the bulbs, I found the circuit board badly burned on only one or two of the copper circuits. The only affect was the lights didn't work. I recently replaced the printed circuit board, and all is well.

Steve

 

[Tweek]

Ok guys I'm at it agian tonite, I have the inst. panel out and there is no broken or burnt parts on the board. I pulled the light switch out to, the clip for the wires to plug into the switch is slightly browned, well kinda burnt, I unplugged the inst. panel power clip, put a new fuse in and turned on the lights, and the fuse still blew. This is only the inst. panel fuse that is a 7.5 amp fuse. Wouldn't that isolate the problem to the switch?

 

[vigman]

Not really

The Dimmer is only a piece of Ni Chrome wire
( varible resistor ) which limits current to all the bulbs.... I would check & see if any bulbs are OUT( when it's working ) and trace that wiring.. remove the center console ( and the center gauge panel) look for pinched/nicked
wiring.

The BROWN spot on the dimmer is from HEAT
and the dimmer is in series with the load.. it doesn't have anything to short out against..

When the dimmer goes bad.. it OPENS!


Vig!

 

[Bob Chadwick]

I think the switch was only about $20 when I replaced mine. While Vigman is probably right, I would replace this switch before I started taking everything apart. Worth the $20 to me in an attempt to get around a lot of work. my .02.

Bob