dashlights out

[280zgod]

hi everyone. I bought this 280z about a year ago and the dashlights never quiteworked right because the stereo in the car was hooked up wrong... so i put a new stereo in and now they dont work at all. does anyone know the color of the wire that i need to hookup to the stereo for my dashlights to work or am i speaking gibberish to yall? thanks

[wal280z]

does anyone know the color of the wire that i need to hookup to the stereo for my dashlights to work or am i speaking gibberish to yall? thanks

wiring diagrams are online for the '75 model courtesy of ZCarCreations... Wiring Diagrams

Wayne

[280zgod]

thank you thank you that will be very useful just have to figure out how to hook those two wires up to the one wire on the stereo.

[TomoHawk]

Are you sure that you don't need 2 power wires for the stereo? Most newer ones have two. One (always hot) for the clock/memory and one (switched) for the amplifier. Plus ground.

[280zgod]

I know how to install a stereo but it has another wire i wasnt sure what to do with. Its Orange and is called the illumination wire... and i have these wires on the car that werent used that go between all the dashlights(to my recent discovery). So i figure that one or all of them must hook up to the orange wire. the stereo works great. It always keeps its memory and works fine, just those extra wires were puzzling to me because at first i thought maye the orange one does what i think it implies... but then i didnt know what those wires went to since i didnt have a diagram and i had disconnected the previous stereo in the car a long time ago since it was making my whole car malfunction( i.e. dashlights would flicker on and off for periods of time, stereo would turn on and off as it wanted to, also it would never decrease volume, or shut off by hitting the power button). but i wired my new one right and it works great, just wondering how to get my dashlights back and im gonna try something tomorrow since i dont feel up to it today and would probably leave the console off... i hate putting the console back on, nothing fits right etc. etc. Anyway good suggestion tomo but i already have that covered.

[280zgod]

hey wal where can i get the color diagram that would be awesome? thanks

[ChrisA]

Its Orange and is called the illumination wire...

If you connect this orange wire to a bulb wire on one of the three gauges above the radio would that solve your problem? Just guessing. Since you said the previous radio was on the fritz and causing other problems I would sort out the car's problems and then wire in the stereo.

FWIW

Chris

[wal280z]

hey wal where can i get the color diagram that would be awesome? thanks

I'm putting together the same type of diagram for the '75-76 model, if and when I get done I'll post that likewise... (don't hold your breath). The layout is basically the same between all these years, some minor differences do show up, so don't take the color one as gospel for your car.

here is the link to the thread, w/ printing options, etc. spelled out.

the other place would be from the front page to the links.

Wayne

[280zgod]

well chris im no electrician and the guy who owned it before me thought he was... this car has wiring screwed up all over the place but my nissan dealer said it was safe to drive it and that i should think about rewiring it stock. the radio before was a piece of crap self installed wrong by the previous owner. I almost cried when i pullled it out and saw that speaker wires were connected to power and so on and so forth. but as soon as i pulled the stereo out and put mine in no more problems except the dashlights. there are three wires. from the car that are supposed to connect to the stereo. A blue one, a red and blue one, and a green and white one i believe. These all (to my knowledge of the diagram provided by wal) connect between the dashlight system to power it. so im guessing this orange illumination wire connects to one or three of those to make my dashlights work again cuz i need em. driving at night withought any guages is getting old. i like that eerie green glow :-) does any of my speculating sound correct to any of you? you all think orange to those three wires? or am i way off? thanks again for the input everyone.