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in my 77 the lights in the instrument cluster wont work and ive tried to differnt thangs and they still wont work ....but all the guages work just not the lights on them ....has anybody else had this problem ? wat could be wrong with it ?
Everything works but the dash lights? Could be the rheostat in the headlamp switch. When you turn the ****, that activates the rheostat, which brightens or dims the dash lights.
D7TZ-11654-A Headlamp Switch (Motorcraft SW-1381)
Replacing the switch is simple...disconnect battery cable, pull out headlamp ****. Reach under dash, find the switch. On the bottom, there's a button, push it in, and pull **** and shaft from the switch. There's a plastic nut that holds the switch to the dash, remove it..carefully, and switch will drop out. Unplug the loom, re-install in new switch, reassemble. It's not necessary to push the button again, just push the **** and shaft into the switch.
not the fuse and the plug aint corroded ....so were can i get a switch at ? and how much are they ? ...and if it dont fix it im takin it back ....but if u thank about it , the lights on the heater and stuff wont work either and they work right now ...so theres must be somthing wrong with the cluster ....
I have looked at many fuses and even replaced fuses because they "looked" good and ended up spending a lot of time wondering why things didn't work. I probably ended up going in a circle replacing bad fuses with bad fuses and good fuses with bad fuses...Well you get the picture. Test it with a meter or test light.
Either the instument cluster flex circuit was replaced, or the harness was replaced by the previous owner. One of the two was for the incorrect model (Ranger vs Custom). When I traced the red/blue wire into the instrument cluster, it dead-ended at a point in the flex circuit that had a spot for a bulb, but the cluster did not have a hole for a bulb.
The fix: I traced the circuit lines on the cluster to a place in the plug. There wasn't a wire there. So I moved the dead-end blue/red to that spot. Done.
Wish I would have figured that out before I replaced all the bulbs, sockets, and headlight switch.
Either the instument cluster flex circuit was replaced, or the harness was replaced by the previous owner. One of the two was for the incorrect model (Ranger vs Custom). When I traced the red/blue wire into the instrument cluster, it dead-ended at a point in the flex circuit that had a spot for a bulb, but the cluster did not have a hole for a bulb.
Well, Ranger Vs Custom wouldnt make any difference in the clusters, as both came standard with idiot lights. Optional with gauges.
It does matter what year the truck is however, as some of the years were "rewired" drasticly from the others.
It sounds like the cluster back was replaced due to cluster rot. If you post the numbers off the printed circut, one of us here can tell you if it is compatible with your year of truck, or which cluster back would be correct for your truck to make it fully functional they way the cluster should be etc... It's possible that some of the warning lights are not hooked up correctly even now.
so if it says that ...none of them other lights would work and they do ....so its something to do with the cluster not the fuse , im just gonna buy me a little light at walmart and mount it somewere and let it light up the speedometer b/c i dont need none of that other stuff at night.... thanks fer all the help fellas