Not very good with electrical and would appreciate any help. Have a 1983 S10 Blazer that was used for drag racing before i bought it. Been bringing it inline with street regulations as far as bumpers ,lights, that sort of thing. I have all the lights working (headlights hi and low, all park lights, 4 way flashers, signal lights) but i can not get the dash lights working. I have removed the cluster and checked each individual bulb and they all work. The signal bulbs in dash flash when the signals or the 4 ways are used but i can not get the dash lights working. The printed circuit seems ok, check for any cuts in the circuits. Tried a new headlamp switch but no luck. I am open to any thoughts or suggestions anyone might have! Not so smart electrical guy out!

 

You need to start working through the system from the dash connector to the headlight switch then on to the fuse making sure that you are getting power to the appropriate terminals in each of the connectors involved. A good service manual with wiring diagrams would be an invaluable reference. You can typically find factory service manuals on eBay for cheap especially for the older s-series trucks. A quick search came up with THIS ONE for $35 to your door and THIS ONE for $26 or best offer with free shipping. I like the first one better as it has the revised wiring diagrams included.

 

Anyone have an idea why the dimmer switch burns/shorts out? I've replaced the switch twice already- what happens is it seems to be shorting out from a ground issue (when hitting bumps the dash lights flicker, odometer dims and then after a bit the switch burns out). The dome light works when turning the dimmer **** to the up position. I don't have dash lights or the light behind the fan/heat *****. Annoying that I've replaced it a few times and also the odometer still works but flickers...thinking theres a problem with a ground line somewhere that's either loose or has a bad contact but have no idea where that's located. Put an aftermarket radio in it a few years back (left the illumination/ dimmer cable disconnected) and that works just fine. Only other thing I can think of is that I also have a subwoofer and amp (with a 1 farad capacitor), that's connected and working just fine too. Not a fuse problem, every time I change the switch everything works for a bit but will burn out again...not going to replace the switch that's broken in the dash again until the real problem is fixed. Any suggestions or where the location of ground or power cables are at? Thanks in advance!

 

If your having trouble with finding the problem,we have a temporary fix that we made perminant. My son wanted to but blue and white LED stips in the dash, mostly because the dim switch is going out. After pulling the dash apart in our 83' K5, I remembered that chevy had a fascination with that baby blue color on the inside of the dash. I lined the bezel with aluminum tape to help with reflecting the light, and then put one LED strip above the gas and spedo, then the other in the middle of the cluster on the left of the dash. Its brighter, and looks good actualy. I put the switch on the bottom of the dash under the head light pull ****, where we also have a switch for his pods for off roading.
I figure when he is more interested in making it look better, I will order the replacement switch from one of the online places, and eventualy do a full dash upgrade to digital guages.