Ok my dash lights are not working.
Here is the what happened. I was hooking up the battery and electrical connections after changing the head gaskets. I smoked the fusible link because I had a short at the alt wire. Thats been fixed and now I have power to everything except the dash wont come on. Nothing its all black except the turn signals.
Everything else seems to work. I have turn signals and head lights. My radio comes on and my interior lights come on. But nothing to the dash. I also have the security light flashing so there is some power.
Its raining so I cant work on the car so I thought I would ask here.
Thanks
Jake

Are you sure you haven't accidently "dimmed" them down to nothing? As your dash lights are wired into your headlight switch, that's the first place I'd look. Next I'd check the instrument lights fuse.

I visually checked the fuses and they looked ok. I was wondering if a ground cable came undone. I was told there should have been one on the back of the head but neither of my heads had any ground wires attached to them.

Going to test the fuses later today and check for grounds to make sure I didn't miss one.

How many grounds should I have? I don't have the book yet so I don't have good diagrams for the harness. It doesn't help that the car was converted to a Carb and some of the wires are not used and not there anymore. I hate puzzles :doh:
Thanks.
Jake

The main ground for the dash is below the battery on what looks like the frame, It has a 10mm head on the bolt, you cant miss it. But if all the fuses are good it doesn't sound good. The dash cluster is very sensitive and a shorted alternator could fry it. Check all the fuses first.
David




I visually checked the fuses and they looked ok. I was wondering if a ground cable came undone. I was told there should have been one on the back of the head but neither of my heads had any ground wires attached to them.

Going to test the fuses later today and check for grounds to make sure I didn't miss one.

How many grounds should I have? I don't have the book yet so I don't have good diagrams for the harness. It doesn't help that the car was converted to a Carb and some of the wires are not used and not there anymore. I hate puzzles :doh:
Thanks.
Jake

Ok I was able to do some more trouble shooting, I pulled a few of the fuses and checked for power at the fuse and I don't have any on some of them. I have flashers not turn signals, I have head lights and the CD player works. My windows roll up and down and I still have power to my amps. So what feeds the missing dash and turn signal circuits? I checked the three fusible links by the starter and replaced the burned up link and one that was questionable. If I check for power at those links all three now have power.

Thanks Jake

I have power on both of these links as well.
http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii408/Jake_Dragon_photos/Vette/Power/DSCF0703.jpg

What a mess.
http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii408/Jake_Dragon_photos/Vette/Power/DSCF0719.jpg
So what does the yellow wire do? It seems like there is power at the fusible link and then its gone on this side of the engine.
Butt connectors are evil. I think I must have pulled something loose when I pulled the head. Anyway looks like the only way this car is going to run again is to get the book and run some new wires.

The search button is your friend use it.

What a mess.
http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii408/Jake_Dragon_photos/Vette/Power/DSCF0719.jpg
So what does the yellow wire do? It seems like there is power at the fusible link and then its gone on this side of the engine.
Butt connectors are evil. I think I must have pulled something loose when I pulled the head. Anyway looks like the only way this car is going to run again is to get the book and run some new wires.

Jake, I didn't see where you mentioned whether you checked that the dash lights dimmed and brightened as they should. Just what worked and what didn't. Do they dim and brighten when you turn the headlight knob?

If you can, find a service manual for your year and test the connectors that go into the cluster to make sure there is power there. I have one for my '88 and it helps enormously as it has all the wiring diagrams and how to troubleshoot it. There was a lot of cut wire on mine that I've had to track down and I've done so with great success because of this manual. I got mine on ebay for $30 new.

Jake, I didn't see where you mentioned whether you checked that the dash lights dimmed and brightened as they should. Just what worked and what didn't. Do they dim and brighten when you turn the headlight knob?

There are no dash lights :( I pulled the dash apart and pulled the fuse box out of the dash so I could get to it with my meter and I do seem to have power to the fuse box. So now I need to start checking grounds. There are no blown fuses :(

I started looking for a book and I'm watching a couple of them on fleebay.

There are no dash lights :( I pulled the dash apart and pulled the fuse box out of the dash so I could get to it with my meter and I do seem to have power to the fuse box. So now I need to start checking grounds. There are no blown fuses :(

I started looking for a book and I'm watching a couple of them on fleebay.

Are you saying no dash lights work, or just the LCD doesn't light up? When you pull the headlight knob, do your headlights still raise up and come on? On the diagram for my '88, the wire that controls lighting functions for the dash is the green one that runs from the headlight switch to the fuse box. From the fuse box, which is the 3 amp 'inst fuse', a gray wire runs to a junction block, where more gray wires run out to all lighted accessories. Each seperate accessory has its own ground that goes to the ground tree. I would start at the headlight switch and make sure the connection is good then trace the gray wires from the 'inst' fuse block to the junction and so on. On the headlight switch, if your outside marker lights work and the headlights work, the ground wire is good.

The power wire to the column is loose or dirty, if I wiggle it around I can get the dash lights to come on. I cant get the plug to come out so I will probably drop the column down so I can see it, its hard working under there being 6 feet tall and I have long arms so I cant move around.

But that looks like the issue, I was able to move it back and forth and the lights are staying on but I wont trust it. What a pain in the butt.