I recently got a 98 blazer 4x4 and the gauge cluster doesn't light up at all, me and my dad have tried everything, the gauges itself all work, they just don't light up at all, we can move the dimmer for the gauges and nothing happens, but if we move it all the way it'll click and the dome light and interior lights in the floorboard will come on. We've been told that if the aftermarket radio from the po wasn't hooked up right it'll either blow a fuse or just stop the cluster lights from coming on at all. We have checked all of the fuses and none of them were blowed, any ideas?

 

Could be that the actual dash lights themselves are blown, but I really don't know. I've never had to look into a second gen yet, but some of the other members here have.

 

we checked the radio wires today and it is a mess, there's cut wires everywhere and we are going to try and fix it sometime this week, we will also check the bulbs in the cluster and see if they are blowed

 

That is always sad when the previous owner didn't choose to do the install the right way. Good luck piecing the harness back together.

 

it is horrible, they cut the factory wires, spliced in around 1 ft of wire, and then they spliced those into the kenwood radio, they didnt even used a antenna adapter and just taped it up so itll fit snug, no idea on how it was able to pick up stations, me and my dad will wire the factory plug back in and solder and then heat shrink it, and then buy a scosche kit for aftermarket radios from wallyworld, was so easy to just solder the plug that comes with the kit before installing the radio and it doesnt looked junked out, i just hope other things werent cut all to hell.


and also, is there a diagram to the factory radio harness that shows what the wires go to? theres a green, purple, and i think a grey wire not hooked to anything, all of them have a white stripe down them i think

 

There is, best bet is to get a chiltons for the diagram other than that I really don't know. I mostly focus on first gen, so I really couldn't help you as much as some of the others here on the forum.

 

dont worry about it, its been the switch the whole time, it will only work when fully turned on and even then only the dome light and floor lights would come on, nothing else, no lights for the window buttons, hvac, 4wd (no idea if it even has them). we are going to replace it this weekend and also remove the alarm system they had put in but didn't even install it

 

Glad to hear you got it sorted. Hope the repair goes smoothly.