When you turn on you headlights, the dash lights up. Mine doesn't Any ideas? Turning the **** doesnt do anything. The lights for the hibeam, turn sigs (the right one only, not the bulb) and seatbelt light work. The guages all work. I just have no illumination in the dash!

The truck is an 84 Ford F150 351 4speed standard, no tach.

Thanks!

 

i have the same problem with ym truck, i found the fuse also keeps blowing. ive traced it back with a short tester(basicly a light installed in place of the fuse). the reostat or dimmer in the headlight switch is the cause of the short ive heard that this is a common problem in out year trucks. i havent yet replaced the switch just because im lazy but i thinks its only about $12. id suggest lookign into that.

 

I had the same prob a few months back.......i went a year not able to figure it out..........but when i got my XM radio installed, the guys the hooked it up for me said that my other radio/CD player wasn't hooked up coorectly and asked if my dash lights were working......"nope" i said, and "yes they are now" they said.LOL so basically i youve had a radio instaled recently, double check and mae sure its hooked up right.........good luck buddy

 

I had to fix a dash light short ("fixed" it )last night that was causing a blown fuses. I found about 5 components in the circuit to check. You are looking for a blue/red stripe


Theres a light right above the headlight/wiper switches, the dash connector (had to take one bulb out of the guage cluster at a time) the connector for the heating control (above controls) the ashtray light, and a connector thats just to the right of the ashtray (i couldn't figure out what that was though..but it's not connected and everything is working)


I was doing this at the start and then I decided that I didn't mind blowing a fuse or two..but if you have a ohm-meter to find you're short you'll need to check the resistance of that circuit by taking the fuse out
1. put positive lead on the bottom part on the fuse box for that fuse (which should go to all the components)
2. put negative on chassis ground
3 note the resistance (it will prob be maybe 1-2 ohms) or maybe nothing
4 now disconnect one component out..if you resistance goes up quite a bit..like say 3-4 ohms then you found the short

Now what happened with me I was hooking up the the top connector and getting the wrong readings so I just gave up..but if you use that procedure you should be able to find out what it is.

hope it helps

 

ok, mine blowing the fuse whenever I turn the headlights on (thus, the dash lights)

motorheadmach1- I think by the sounds of it that the dimmer is the cause here, do I get the part from FORD or the local jobber?

83_f150_me- I unhooked the radio completly and it still does it, thanks tho!

Violjohn78- I dont think I completly follow you mthod, could you perhaps explain more?

Thanks all!

 

well when you hook up an ohm meter/or volt meter you are applying a voltage to whatever you are measuring to measure the resistance.

Now when you measure the resistance on the dash light circuit (if it was working properly) you would be going through all the components and getting a resistance of XX ohms. now if something is shorted..the current that you run through it is not goign to go through the components it's going to go straight to ground and your resistance is going to go down.

is it making sense? :-)

 

I think I understand now.
I also think I have one of hem thingamagigs downstairs, I will try tommorow.


Also to anyone, how do I get the dimmer switch out? I have the dash bezel off, now what?

Thanks again

 

in the bottom of the dimmer switch there is a little round button, push in that button and pull out the shaft for teh pull switch. you can now remove the small jam nut that holds teh switch through the dash and disconnect the wiring harness. the switch comes right out. personally id go right to the local autoparts store for something like that. let us know how you make out with that.

 

Ok, I am gonna do that tommorow

Thanks, I will let y'all know!

 

You hit it dude! Me an Dad checked er out today, Played around, found the short was in the bad radio I installed recently! So I know have dash lights!

Thanks everyone!

 

Thank you so much. Did an Aftermarket deck myself. No wires look exposed but I gave them a wiggle, popped a new fuse in and I'm off to the races! Appreciate the time saver instead of tracing wire