tail lights and instrument panel lights not working

[billygeg]

Real pita!

This is like impossible! I pulled off the bezel, Pulled the dash pad surround piece off, pulled the speedo, Unscrewed the entire plastic piece that the speedo mounts to and cant seem to get it out for ****! The headlight switch is attached as well as the defogger switch which are both a PITA to get off! There is also some harness running directly behind it which runs threw a plastic piece that is attached to the piece I am trying to get off! Even if I get it off, There is a plastic duct for the vents that is behind there. I hope I understood what you meant and I am doing the right thing here... lol! That would suck! This is a real pain in the ass and I am getting very discouraged. Hope this is the problem when its all said and done! Any words of advice or wisdom?

 

[Waco84GN]

ok... take a breath...

I told you it wasnt easy. The white plastic wire loom behind the cluster comes off after you get the big plastic mounting piece loose. The white plastic loom has 2 screws that go into in from the back side and screw into the piece you are trying to take loose. You can unscrew the 3 bolts that hold the headlight and dimmer switch in place and then to get the connectors out, there are little prongs that you squeeze together and then the connector comes forward towards you some. You can then turn the connector up on its edge and sneak it back through the hole it came out of. If you have passenger remote mirror you will have to remove the small mounting cup for that as well (3 bolts and an allen set screw). As far as the a/c vents are concerned, they are not in the way. The harness where the splices are is the harness that is running through the white duct behind the piece you are trying to remove. When looking at the white duct piece the gray solder joint is about 8 inches down from the white duct piece on the left hand side of the steering wheel. It is about even with the bottom of the dash. The brown solder joint is about another 5-6 inches kinda down under the dash, but in the same harness.

I should have taken pictures, but I wasn't thinking about pics when I was cussing that stupid car the whole time.

 

[billygeg]

Your not going to believe this!

I told you it wasnt easy. The white plastic wire loom behind the cluster comes off after you get the big plastic mounting piece loose. The white plastic loom has 2 screws that go into in from the back side and screw into the piece you are trying to take loose. You can unscrew the 3 bolts that hold the headlight and dimmer switch in place and then to get the connectors out, there are little prongs that you squeeze together and then the connector comes forward towards you some. You can then turn the connector up on its edge and sneak it back through the hole it came out of. If you have passenger remote mirror you will have to remove the small mounting cup for that as well (3 bolts and an allen set screw). As far as the a/c vents are concerned, they are not in the way. The harness where the splices are is the harness that is running through the white duct behind the piece you are trying to remove. When looking at the white duct piece the gray solder joint is about 8 inches down from the white duct piece on the left hand side of the steering wheel. It is about even with the bottom of the dash. The brown solder joint is about another 5-6 inches kinda down under the dash, but in the same harness.

I should have taken pictures, but I wasn't thinking about pics when I was cussing that stupid car the whole time.

After taking the dashboard completely apart something told me to check the fuses 1 more time! It was the damb fuse! I swear I checked the fuses atleast 3 times and they were all good. I am either officially retarded or there must have been a back feed somehow! I never pulled them to check them, I used the test light on each side of each fuse and got power on each side of each fuse every time I checked them. The only fuse I did not have power on was the one I mentioned earlier in the post that had no power on either side. I am kinda pissed that I took apart the dash and now have to put it back together but releaved at the same time and I did learn a valuable lesson. Take the fuses out to check them from now on! I thank you for all your help and sorry for driving u crazy!

 

[Waco84GN]

It was the taillamp fuse right?

Without the tail lamp fuse the dash light fuse will not get power I believe.

Glad you found out the problem. Too bad you had to go through all that.

At least you got to use a majority of your tools and keep them dusted off.

Jerry jr.

 

[billygeg]

Without the tail lamp fuse the dash light fuse will not get power I believe.

Glad you found out the problem. Too bad you had to go through all that.

At least you got to use a majority of your tools and keep them dusted off.

Jerry jr.

LOL! with this car all my tools are shiny! Still alot more work to go! Listen to this one now! I put everything back together and figured I'd let the car run for a while to charge the bat. So I decided to sit in it and listen to music. My front speakers werent working. They always did, So I pull apart the radio and checked all the connections and everything is good. They worked before so I'm like WTF! I decide I will mess with it another time and started turning the car off. First I turned the headlights off and heard some weird sound as soon as I shut them! What the hell was that?! I turn the lights on and off again and I keep getting this weird sound every time I turn them off! What the hell is it?! On like the 4th or 5th time I did this I realized its my front speakers coming on and playing music for a half a second then going off.. I dont know if this car is haunted or what! All I can think is maybe I pinched something in the dash when I put it all back together. So here I go again with the tools! Its not like I dont know what I am doing with cars. I worked on them alot threw my lifetime. The weirdest **** happens to me! lol...

 

[turbobooster]

wow ! shes keeping busy lol patiece is key here