Help ... I can't figure why my dash lights in my early 74' 260z won't work after re-re my dash board ... replaced some new bulbs ... cleaning gauges etc. Fuses look ok ? oddly enough the only bulb working is the cig. light ... but no gauge lights?

Any suggestions ... could it be the dimmer switch? I'm sure I've plugged everything back in? Guess I could pull out my tach and test if theirs power to the bulbs and work backwards.

Any ideals ware to look ...

new to z ownership

richard

Is it possible you blew a fuse putting things back together? Since all of the lights are out I'd guess it's a single point of failure. Do your parking lights work? The power comes through the combination switch to one side of the rheostat (dimmer switch) and from there it goes all all of the instruments which are grounded.

Thanks Mike for your reply ... yes my parking lights work, my headlights work fine. I will have a closer look at the rheostat, I know their is a (two wire) connector, which I've unplugged & replugged ... I'll check to see if their is power to the switch.

And I'll replace the fuse again...

thanks ..

Originally posted by rstreloff

Thanks Mike for your reply ... yes my parking lights work, my headlights work fine. I will have a closer look at the rheostat, I know their is a (two wire) connector, which I've unplugged & replugged ... I'll check to see if their is power to the switch.

And I'll replace the fuse again...

thanks ..

If your parking lights work then it's not the fuse since the same fuse is used for both systems. The rheostat is simply a variable resistor. One option is to simply take the two wires that go to the rheostat and hook them together. That's the equivalent of full bright (and if your car is anything like mine full bright is the only reasonable setting). That will tell you if the rheostat is bad. Of course, if you have no voltage at the rheostat the problem is elsewhere.

Thanks for your time ... much appreciated!

Yes, I remember how dim the dash lights were the night I brought the car home But ... they were working!

Tonight I will try hooking both wires together that go to the rheostat, but somehow I don't think I have voltage to the rheostat, as I unplugged the connector and probed with a tester neither pin inside the connector had voltage?

Oddly enough I found under the steering column, just below the ignition switch a single red wire (with blue strip) female connector (hot wire) which was unplugged and a black wire with male connector, I thought ... this is it ! Finally!

But after connecting the two... still now dash lights? I'm thinking could I not jump a wire from the red (hot) wire I found to the rheostat connector, as there must be a break in the wire. I guess the worse that could happen is I blow the fuse if the voltage or this red lead is not the correct one.

Will keep trying ...