Dash lights work with parkers but not headlights.

[Pabloek]

Hi guys, finally got the old girl on the road and I'm now just looking at the small stuff.. I've got an issue with the dash lights not working when headlights on but they do whith the parkers on.. Anyone had this? Need a whole new headlight switch or is it something I could tinker with? (I'm a youtube mechanic / auto elec ) no qualifications but fairly capable with the help of this forum and YouTube. Ha..
Cheers guys.
Pablo

[ardiesse]

At a rough guess, the grey wire is connected to the wrong terminal on the headlight switch. Do the instrument lamps dim when you turn the headlight knob? The correct terminal for the instrument lights is the one which comes from the rheostat.

Somebody will (hopefully) post a diagram showing the connections to the headlight switch.

Rob

[Harv]

The dashlights run through a dimmer. You dim them by twisting the headlight knob. A metal slider runs along a long spring which is a variable resistor. The spring gets manky, and will only work in some knob positions. You can excercise the assembly a bit and sometimes they come good. Otherwise you can pull the assembly out and clean it properly.

headlight switch.jpg (926.79 KiB) Viewed 570 times

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

My guess is the dash lights wiring is on the park lights circuit - they go off once the headlights are on and so do your dash lights so it stands to reason thats the problem. Harvs pic above out of the service manual shows where they should be connected - and new light switches are available either through Rare Spares for $150 or EKMart for $100

[Pabloek]

Thanks heaps guys. Gonna attack it this week hopefully. Cheers

[avm]

Hi,

The comments and information supplied above are good and correct. About the dimmer function, when I took delivery of my EK last year the dimmer seemed unsteady. Following advice, I repeatedly swept the dimmer switch across its full range, left and right, thus cleaning up the dimmer switch and thereafter it has operated flawlessly.

[Pabloek]

Ok so it stopped working all together and I've found the grey wire has come off the dash light terminal.. But, how to I get access to this / how do you take the whole mechanism out or at least be able to pull it through the back a little so I can hopefully reattach the wire?
Cheers guys

[Harv]

The easiest way to reconnect the wire is to lie on your back, half in and half out the door, with your head up under the dash. You can then access most of the terminals, and can reconnect it.

The alternative is to pull the switch out. Disconnect the battery first, as a lot of that switch is LIVE. Pull the dash knob out all the way (two clicks). Now reach up under the dash, and push in the little magic button on the underside of the switch:

Light switch magic button.jpg (86.97 KiB) Viewed 397 times

With the button in, keep pulling the dash knob out until the assembly comes all the way out (looks like a knob on a piece of wire). Now that the knob is out of the way, you can unscrew the dash bezel, and remove the switch out of the dash. Drop it down and reconnect the wire.

That process is painful... easier to stick your head under the dash.

Cheers,
Harv

[Errol62]

Pull the dash panel out while you’re at it. All shall be revealed…..


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[Brett027]

Just in case: disconnect your battery before you do anything. None of the powered wires on the switch are covered.

[Pabloek]

OK so it hadn't come off from the switch terminal its come off from wherever it should go after that.. Any ideas?

[Blacky]

Check out the picture above out of the workshop manual, its the terminal nearest the end of the switch that bolts up against the dash. Labelled in the picture as instrument lights. What you may find is the dimmer has open circuited, that will stop it working at all which is why the previous owner would have moved it.

If thats the case you can either buy a new switch from Rare Spares or just connect it to the terminal that is labelled tail lamps - that will be on when either the parkers or headlights are activated.

[Pabloek]

Cheers Blacky, just making sure we're on the same page.. The wire actually is attached to the correct terminal for the dash lights us the end terminal closest to the end ie "instrument lights" but it's the other end that's not attached to anything.. Where does it go from that terminal? I couldn't find another broken grey wire leading away... Etc.
Thanks again guys

[Harv]

OK... if I understand it right, your lighting switch is OK. It has a little stub of wire correctly screwed to the INSTRUMENTS terminal. Unfortunately, the little stub of wire is connected to nothing else, and hence no instrument lights.

The wiring diagram is here:
viewtopic.php?t=3418

... and the bit you're interested in looks like this:

broken wiring.jpg (39.81 KiB) Viewed 265 times

I've coloured it in red to make it easier to see. The little stub of wire should join a bunch of other wires in a taped harness, and snake its way up behind the instrument panel. It comes out of the harness and splits into four little grey wires. The little grey wires have bub holders on the end, that plug into the instrument panel.

Cheers,
Harv

[Pabloek]

Hey just wanna say thanks heaps guys. I found the wire and reconnected it and it worked! For a short time. Starterd off being easy enough twisting a bit and it would come on but it became very hard to find a spot and now it doesn't work at all.. May have to take it out and have a look... Is the little magic release button supposed to be tough to press? Looks a bit rusted and seems like it doesn't want to budge..
Anyway I'll give it a crack with all your above tips.Thanks again guys. Great help.