Installed MGW, Now Dash Lights Don't Work.

**Naaman** · 02-25-2012, 07:26 PM

Okay, I have a couple of drives to make in the dark tomorrow, and I will not be able to get the wiring diagrams till Monday. Anyone know what the cause could be?

Here are the symptoms:

When the parking light switch is turned on, the dash light should illuminate, but it does not. Also, the odometer should dim, but instead, it disappears. All the idiot lights work on start up, the turn signals work and the head lights work. Also, when the parking brake is deactivated, the headlights come on as normal (which cases the odometer to disappear, and dash light fails to illuminate).

I tried disconnecting that wire that hooks up the lights to the parking brake, and the headlights turned on and dash lights did not. I do not know what I did that would have caused this (I unplugged the 12v, and the ash tray light during the swap, but I forgot to plug the ash tray back in during reassembly, so I will try putting that back in tomorrow).

Anything ring a bell here?

**Naaman** · 02-27-2012, 09:59 AM

Holy Crap! I'm looking at AllData and Chilton, and I cannot for the life of me find this circuit...

EDIT:
I found that the instrument panel light is connected into the convertible top switch through pin B (lower right corner, second from right). I don't remember seeing anything wrong with that connection, but I did try to unplug it unsuccessfully during the install. The top iteslf still works fine, so it's probably not a bad connector... more to follow (hopefully).

**tatertot91** · 02-27-2012, 10:51 AM

The only thing I can think of that would affect the lights at all is the parking brake stitch.

**Naaman** · 02-27-2012, 01:16 PM

That's what I was thinking, but I can't figure out where the problem is... I'm going to try back probing the B-pin, hopefully that gets me somewhere.

**Naaman** · 04-05-2012, 10:48 AM

So, I checked my fuse box, and sure enough, there is a 5-amp fuse specifically for the instrument panel dimmer. I replaced the fuse, hoping that it was the whole problem. So far, so good: the instrument panel lights up when I turn on the headlights, and the fuse has not blown out. I'm guessing that while tinkering around I induced a momentary short and blew the fuse.