I have searched and searched and tried everything I found and still no dash lights.
I first tried bypassing the dimmer, all it did was spark and get the wire HOT, not blow the fuse though. Then i went looking for those auto tranny wires and the are not there at all. I looked for a while and could never find them. I have headlights, parking lights, idiot lights. All the lights work except for the dash lights. I have tried switching out the cluster to only to come up to right back where I started. Somebody please help, I am so tired of not haveing dash lights.

 

Does the overhead dome light work?

 

yes it does

 

It's odd that the wires sparked and got hot when you bypassed the dimmer...

Hmm...

I've gotta dig out my wiring diagrams for this (I'm moving)... I'll get back to you as soon as I can...

 

thanks i need all the help i can get on this one, also when i bypassed the dimmer i had my glovebox open and the light on the inside of the glovebox went out and then came back on when i pulled the wire from the dimmer

 

It was off when the dimmer was hooked up, but came on when you bypassed the switch?...

 

no it was on with the dimmer hooked up but went off when i bypassed the dimmer, but when i took the wire out (because it was getting hot) the light came back on

 

I'll look for the FSM in the morning...

 

ok thanks

 

bump

 

anyone else have any input on this

 

It sounds like it is the automatic transmission wires that sit underneath the shifter boot on top of the transmission. These wires, which look for all the world like they should be hooked up, should not be connected if you have a manual transmission - if they are, your dash lights will be off and your dimmer switch will get hot and burn out. Your wires are probably there but hidden, fish around for them. If anyone has worked on your tranny recently, they probably hooked those wires up when they put it back together and maybe put them back in a place that's hard to find. That's what happened to the 84 GSL I recently purchased, someone did the clutch and hooked them up thinking it was the right thing to do. Not.

Ray

 

I think i found those wires today (green and red right) and i disconnected them and it still does the same thing it did before. By the way they were under the car.

 

I had the exact same problem with my 85 gs... My wire got hot too, burned the crap out of my finger. I ended up finding the positive and negative wires for the dash lights that go into the cluster panel plug... I tried tieing in a source and the wire still heated up, so I cut them and ran a source from my fuse box, so now they come on with the key. getto yeah, but I couldnt stand to have no lights.

 

i might end up having to do that

 

Now that you have unplugged the auto tranny wires, you should be able to jump the dimmer switch without it overheating. Had to do this myself a couple months back.

 

The wires are more like black and red. The black wire has red markings and the red wire has blue markings. Here's a picture. As Kentetsu suggests, your dimmer switch is probably burned out now, so you either need to replace it or jump it if you don't mind the dash lights being up all the way. I suspect you'd be happy just to see them come on, I was!

Ray

 

Im also having this same problem....and im not trying to steal the thread but i did everything that was stated above...and when i bypassed my dimmer switch the lights worked for about 10 seconds before i noticed smoke coming thru the dash....i immediately looked underneath the dash to notice that the wires were melting....so now im stuck with melted wires and a dash that doesnt illuminate....my question is how hard is it to just remove the stock gauges and throw in some autometer gauges and run all the lighting for the gauges off of the auxillary power.....thanks for the help.....parker

 

"my question is how hard is it to just remove the stock gauges and throw in some autometer gauges and run all the lighting for the gauges off of the auxillary power....."

Hi Parker, before you bypassed the dimmer switch, did you disconnect the wires under the shifter that are only meant to be connected in cars with automatic transmissions? (I know you said that you "did everything that was stated above" but let's be sure about this. See the photo in the post above).

If you did not disconnect these wires or they are in some other way still making a connection you will get exactly the results that you describe - hot wires and smoke coming from the dash due to a fried dimmer switch. And a dash that still doesn't illuminate.

Disconnecting these wires is a whole lot easier than rewiring the dash.

Ray

 

i tried to bypass the dimmer switch agian and all i got are the same results. the wire is still getting hot and I still do not have dash lights. The only reason i found those wires is because i blew my clutch apart the other day and i had to replace it. And one last question do those wires run directly to the trans?

 

Those wires are used in the A/T cars, to illuminate the gear choice. Its a positive/negative 12v circuit made with the little bulb in the gear choice indicator thing. Its connected to the dash lights/dimmer switch so the light only turns on with the dash lights, and the illumination is the same.

If you have disconnected the right wires under the shift boot, and still get sparks, then something else is shorting out. Have a look at a Haynes wiring diagram and trace things back.

 

yes ive had the wires disconnected.....also ive had the RX7Doctor over once to check it out...he told me that everything was setup correctly and if bypassing the dimmer didnt work then my gauge cluster itself has a short possible.....also ive tried a brand new dimmer switch and it had the same effect with no illumination.....

im goin to probably end up installing all autometer gauges b/c i need a higher speedometer, and the fuel gauge also doesnt work.....so i guess im goin to have to start a new thread in search of those before me that have done this conversion b/c i want to purchase everything at once so that there is less of a hassle of searching for parts later down the road.....hopefully Mazda12ags wont have the same problem and its a simple mislooked problem....ill try and do a complete write-up of the stock to autometer gauge conversion as well.....thanks.....parker

 

the only thing I don't exactly know about is if I disconected the right wires. The ones i found ran straight to the trans and were red and green with bullet connecters i might be over looking the right ones or it might possibly be something alot more and harder (god i hope not).

 

Those are not the ones, these wires should be underneath the rubber shift boot. They do not touch the tranny at all and stay inside the car.

 

ok then i will try to find the wires that everyone is talking about