Dash Light Jumper

[K Sparky]

This maybe old news but I was almost done with the repairs on a 1986 Sammy that will serve as a farm Side by Side and had everything working except for the dash lights. This is the same Suzuki that I have posted about and my 12 year old son has been learning to wrench on. Well after swapping on a new carb, reworking the ignition system, replacing the fuel pump, the shocks, the brake pad, a transfer case shift sheet and all the filters it really bothered me that the dash board lights did not work! With Christmas :laugh: and the trip to the farm days away I figured out a jumper from red/green to black/white would turn them on full bright. For now it is a good patch and in a pinch it works! I plan to order a new dimmer so I just bent the connector that was causing a fuse to blow out of the way and ran a copper wire between the spades on the correct poles.

 

[eruby]

Good luck with the new dimmer if you are talking about the rotary button. When mine failed, I looked for a replacement. I did find someone selling one but they wanted more than 10% of what I paid for my whole Sammy so I just did the jumper and haven't looked back. It's not bright enough to bother me at night.

 

[urbex]

It's just a simple variable resistor.  Given the way it mounts, it would likely even be easy to find an alternate replacement that would still retain the factory knob, thus retains a factory appearance on the outside, and wouldn't cost half an arm and your left nut to replace, lol.  Though to be honest, I have no idea what the OEM replacements cost. 

 

[Aids10]

An OEM foglight/defrost switch replaces it nicely

 

[urbex]

Come to think of it, I've had it in the back of my mind to replace the headlight switch with a GM style switch/dimmer for a while, as my headlight switch is starting to get wonky...have to turn it _almost_ all the way forward for the lights to work, but if I do go all the way, the lights turn back off.  Rather annoying given that I run HIDs, and it takes a few seconds for them to warm up, so it takes a while to find that sweet spot, lol. 

Though doing that would be a much more involved job with rerouting wiring off the column, and wouldn't be a plug and play deal for those that aren't all that comfortable with electrical modifications.  I have to do some digging in the parts books for some other upcoming projects, so I'll see what I can find for other dimmers to replace ours too. 

 

[txgocart]

Doesn?t the first gen trakicks dimmer have an exact fit?

Ray

 

[ArtByScars]

None of my dash lights work except the clock ion the middle is nice and bright- but the numbers are nearly impossible to see anymore :lol: none of my fuses are blown, I'm gonna check this out later and see if I get any illumination before I need to tear it all out and replace bulbs/rewire ... PO did a real nightmare job on this thing with his backyard wiring mods for adding a siren (which looks like the one out of the old 80's Acme catalog- which I have in perfect condition) and added tow lights to the rear for pulling behind his motorhome by cutting and splicing (twisting together) a corroded birds nest of copper.

 

[K Sparky]

None of my dash lights work except the clock ion the middle is nice and bright- but the numbers are nearly impossible to see anymore :lol: none of my fuses are blown, I'm gonna check this out later and see if I get any illumination before I need to tear it all out and replace bulbs/rewire ...

This dimmer is probably your issue. I would have just spliced the wires but I wanted the option of possibly getting a new dimmer switch at some point.

 

[wachtelhund]

I think these switches are voltage regulators and are repairable.  Most times just open them up and clean the contacts.

 

[eruby]

I think these switches are voltage regulators and are repairable.  Most times just open them up and clean the contacts.

I've done this. Also, from some heavy wheeling, I had solder connections that failed. I soldered them back and it worked for another couple months then failed again. I did this bypass from post #4 in thread Dash light to parking light and haven't looked back. Sure it's on full bright but it's not bright enough to bother me. Thanks @jsoluna for the pic.