well idk wut happened al of a sudden my guage lights just shut off on me, then like half an hour later they turned on for a lil bit. i checked all fuses...no problems there. i found out if u put the tilt on the steering wheel all the way up the lights come back on. im thiknin its a bad ground somewhere? any ideas? im gonna check my chiltons to see where the wiring is maybe i can do this on my own

~mike

 

Well, what I would do is check to make sure the wiring harness for the dashboard isn't caught on the steering column. Is it just the lights that goes out, or does then entire dash loose power? You can have a bad connection or wire for just the lights somewhere in the harness. It could also be possibly that the lights are going bad too and are need in replacement.

S

 

yea its just the lights. the funny thing is sometimes u can put the tilt down and they will stay on for a few min then cut off. im gonna check all the harnesses under the dash tomorrow. this sucks because i do alot of night driving. good point about the lights goin bad tho i kno i can pull em outta my old max.. well i hope its just a loose connection.

~mike

 

Old bulbs also do that too, though having them go out at the same time is a rather bit odd, its definately a good idea. If your going to replace them, I suggest putting in new bulbs as opposed to pulling them out of your 86 GL.

S

 

ok well heres a question wut exactly do i have to do to get to the bulbs? because where i am i dont have a lpace to pull the whole dash apart and set it out side the car. if it is a lil bit of work im sure i can jus set things in the seats for the time being. also how long do u think it would take to do it? thanx

~mike

 

Basically you have to pull off the front trim that goes around the stereo and climate controls, that has all the buttons for the trunk, mirrors etc. Remove the plastic guage cover, unbolt the gauge assembly, unbolt the speedometer from the tranny and unbolt the hold and give in some slack, disconnect the rear gauge assembly harness and speedo cable, and viola, you have it out. Installation is reverse of removal.

S

 

well i did that yesterday and found that the problem wasnt behind the dash/inst. panel tho however i saw a cluster of wires heading towards the top side of my steering wheel, whle the panel was out i figured to reach back and wiggle it a bit and then my lights flickered on and off. so i found the problem. put everything back together traced the cluster of wires to the underside of the steering wheel, to where all the switches and levers are on the steering wheel. i pulledth cover off and there it was. someone had spliced the wire then did a ****ty job trying to fix it with a butt splice, so i just added a bit of wire to give a lil slack and a good connection sealed it up and everything works now. thanx for the help.

~mike