I just got myself really frustrated.. Either I'm missing the obvious, or its "done differently" than most cars..

I just hooked up my Autometer mechanical boost gauge, and decided to wire the light so it comes on when I turned on the headlights. My past experience with cars is the dash light wiring is typically Green.. I narrowed it down to Green with a tracer (white or yellow, I don't really recall) Anyway, when I checked it with my volt meter, I discovered that the hot lead (Green wire) just provides the 12v source, because it doesnt vary in voltage (how you would typically adjust the light brightness) So, in the process of trying to find the loop return (typically this would be wired to ground) I came across a black with yellow tracer, and black w/ silver dashed tracer.. In any case, neither seemed to do the job, and it actually blew the fuse when I was trying to test it.

To make a long story short.. What are the wires needed to wire the light to the gauge/dash lights for night driving so it varies in intensity along with the rest of the dash..

and a weird observation, the dash cluster lighting is fused and wired with the right rear taillight circuit, so if your dash lights go out, odds are you also have a taillight out.. Hows that for strange? What is even stranger is there is no "instrument lighting" Fuse at all.. and to make it even more confusing, the fuse that fixed it was under the hood, not under the dash..

Does anyone have a complete wiring diagram? Or at least can give me the right wires to tap into for these damn lights?

Geeze, I'm an engineer so I feel really stupid asking, but this definitely is wired a little differently than any other car I've worked on in the past, probably because the cluster lights are on all the time, but the intensity adjustment only "Is enabled" when the parking/headlights are on.

Hopefully someone "In the know" can answer this soon so I can finish this thing up tonight...

Jack

 

I just thought of something else.. Is it possible that the intensity is adjusted by varying the frequency of an oscillator circuit? That would typically give me a steady voltage, but if you hooked it up to a bulb, could vary the intensity of the filament.. Or am I really reading too much into this?

 

I don't have a direct answer for you but you could alwasys follow the wires coming out of the dimmer knob and see where they lead.

 

Hi,

I have a shop manual for my 93 Talon and maybe the color scheme might still apply?

Anyway, diagram shows a circuit originating at a sub fusible link passing through the headlight relay thru a fuse to the dimmer. A red wire enters the pot and an Blue wire connects the pot center post to ground. The diagram indicates R or red combinations are positive with respect to blue wires at chassis ground.

Speedlimit.........

 

Already did the trace thing.. And unfortunately there are no red wires on the dimmer... There is a green with (yellow or white) tracer, a black with yellow tracer, and a black with silver dashed tracer.. Its definitely different than my Neon, and different than the other mistusbishi eclipse diagram that I have. Its definitely weird..

 

Try using the dimmer off the back of the radio. To identify it, buy a harness for the radio, find your color and return the harness. You want need to open it. Or just run by BB or CC and have one of the installers let you use the harness.

 

Has anyone actually installed a boost gauge that required a connection for the light?? I have seen several posts about people installing gauges, I guess everyone has had the same problem.

 

I installed mine and tapped off the cigarette lighter illumination ring (light blue glowy ring around the lighter plugin). Only issue is that while the dimmer switch does control the illumination of the ring, my boost guage remains at a constant brightness... kooky, aint it?

 

Actually I don't think It controls the brightness, I considered the same thing.. Did you connect to the green wire, and then ground the other? When I was looking at the different Illumination points for the lighting, it appeared that the gauge cluster, the lights on the dash itself, would dim, but the lighting on the ash tray, and the cigar lighter didn't... But I'll double check that.


Thanks for the info.. Thats what I didn't want was the constant brightness.

 

I just checked, and the cig lighter illumination ring does dim with the switch, along with the rest of the instrument panel. I connected to the green wire, then grounded to chassis. Likely that is why the guage doesn't dim... maybe. Electricity is high tech voodoo to me...

 

I just checked too.. I think if I were to use BOTH leads for the light it will dim.. But then it will be on if the parking lights are on.. Even though the cluster Illumination is only on when the engine is running.. hehe..I'm picky eh?