Dash lights don’t work

[Berkybot]

So my dash lights no longer work after a couple months of them working if I fiddled with the light stick. I pulled apart the steering hub thingy and unplugged the little harness in there (the one on the left behind and below the light activation lever). Only a couple of the circuits activated the test lamp. Can someone tell me which wire would correspond to the dash lights? It is an 84 720.

[datzenmike]

Try flushing the switch contacts with a can of electrical contact cleaner.

 

On the headlight switch the Red/Blue wire is power from the battery.

The Red/Yellow wire is switched on by the headlamp in the second and third positions. You better check your tail lights, they are on the same circuit. No dash lights... no tail lights. See what you get.

[Berkybot]

I used some cleaner but no I don’t have any tail lights. Thing is my tail lights were causing some sort of parasitic drain on the battery, so I have to keep the fuse pulled to keep the battery charged. Thanks for the help. 

[datzenmike]

Well find this parasitic draw and fix it first.  the other problem might just go away.

 

Does the #13 fuse for the tail/dash lights blow? If not, when connected do the dash/tail lights still not work?

 

Find the body harness where it connects to the tail light harness somewhere near the right rear tail lights and unplug. Does the parasitic draw go away?

 

If YES then the draw is in the tail light harness or the lamps it's connected to.

If NO then find the 10 pin connector under the passenger seat and disconnect it. Does the draw go away?

 

YES... then the problem is the harness under the rear of the truck.

NO... then the draw is somewhere towards the light switch, possibly in the dash lighting.

 

This will narrow down the location of the parasitic draw.

 

 

[None_zero]

Looks like Mike is all over this one with excellent advice as usual I would add though that all things light run on the same red blue wire so be careful what you mess with as both headlights and turn signals and brake lights all use the same or nearly identical wire if I'm not mistaken 

Edited December 19, 2023 by None_zero

[None_zero]

I know this because I have no dash lights either because when I finally got all the red blue wires connected correctly so that I had headlights (dim and bright) turn signals and brake lights... the dash lights quit working and I said to myself. Self you can live without dash lights, hell the only thing I need to read on the dash is the temp gauge anyways. The only other stuff that works is the fuel gauge (sometimes) and the tachometer (which doubles as my speedometer and I can judge it by ear anyways)

[DwayneOxford]

The rheostat for dash lights adjusts the ground to them. If it's not grounded or working right lights won't work.

[Berkybot]

Thanks for the help guys. As of right now I have disconnected the harness for the cabin lamp and that seems to have done the trick. When I purchased the vehicle the light would not turn off so I removed the bulb., so removing that harness is no big deal. now the tail lights and dash lights work once more.