tail llight and speedo light doesnt work... i aready changed the fuses and light bulb... someone told me they both run on the same circut... so maybe thast why both of em went out at the same time... can anybody offer any help?!?!

 

If the fuses are all good, then pull off the steering column cover and make sure you're getting power to your lighting switch. If you are, then chances are that the switch is knucked up. Pull it off and makes sure all the contacts are cleaned up and operating properly (close when they should, open when they should).

You are right, the first position on the lighting/combo switch controls both the dash lights, front bumper lights, side markers, and the taillights.

 

The lights on my dash go out from time to time, the center light between the tack and speedo and all the lights for the tripple gauges. It sometimes makes my tach not work and my temp gauge...sometimes the oil gauge, I have to smack the dash some times a couple of times and they come on...old circuit boards ya know. You may be in need of some cleaning like myself. But if it is all the dash light then it maybe the light switch on the column.

 

thxone, Your's sounds like the connector on the back of your gauge cluster is coming loose or the circuit board is indeed damaged where the connectors attach. You should probably pull your cluster and check it out. Especially the fact that it affects the tach leads me to believe that. Another area to check is the cluster of colored connectors below the glovebox. A couple of those route all the wiring to the dash.

 

Yeah I am sure it is a cluster of wires somewhere cause I cleaned most of the little connectors on the board itself but it still does it, but thats a project for another day. I think if Chinese kids problem is the switch itself then all I can say is if it has to be replaced make sure you get the right one, we replaced the one on my buddys 1980 with one from an 82...it was all we could find around there, but it was a pain and all he had was high beams when the lights were on. It was quite the hack job, all good now though.

 

Heh, funny how I just dealt with that.
On my 81 ZX, the radio, the cigarette lighter are also on the same circuit...all have the dreaded red/white cable in my car.
Since I still have the stock radio, when my tail lights went out the saved stations on my radio went out as well, not to mention that the battery meter and clock were affected by this same fuse - the hazard 20A fuse.

In my case it was/is the cigarette lighter; I left one of the cigarette lighter connections loose so it was rubbing off against a piece of meta, but I also found out that pushing-in the cig. lighter blows this fuse. Good thing I don't smoke

 

Very rarely does the switch actually need to be replaced. They are very easy to repair when there is damage or wear. I mean, other then an electrical fire melting the switch, I cant think of any other reason to actually replace the switch.

 

can i just spray the air thingy on it.. to clean it or?

 

if it's got corrosion then you'll have to pull it and clean it up with some super fine grit sandpaper. There is also a chance that the connectors are just bent or distorted and will need to be reformed. This is done very simply by hand while eyeballing and testing to make sure everything is operating correctly by turning the light switch as you go to watch the contacts open and close. If you dont have a wiring diagram this can be difficult as it will tell you which contacts should be open or closed based on the position of the light switch.

 

the head light works tho... just my speedo light and tail light doesnt.. but i'll go and see tomorrow if its all corroted and stuff

 

the headlights are on a seperate circuit from the taillight/dash lights. They all share the switch, but the circuitry itself is independant within the switch. You'll proably be able to notice the problem area right away...if there isn't noticeable corrosion then just watch for the set of contacts that doesn't appear to move no matter what position you put the light switch in.

 

problem fix....


was connection and found a cut wire....

 

Man, gotta love to see that. Hey did you put in aftermarket lights?

 

yeah, typical 280zx lighting harness connector

 

Indeed... seems to be a very common prob.

 

does anybody know if it gets like that.. or do i have a short some where that i need to go and find.. hahaha... or maybe its the connector its self thats touching?? and idea?

 

It could've been a short, but most likely its just too much current flowing through that circuit and it burnt out that connection (which in turn burnt out the plastic). I had one burn on me and it went about 8" up into the wire on one side, completely fused the connections to the plastic connectors and then went up an inch or so on the other side. I had to dremel that part of the connector so I could get the wire out. I then just relocated the wire to an empty spot and wired everything differently with more relays.

 

If there's to much current going.. Then doesn't that mean there's a shoort there? or if not.. What do I have to do to fix the current problem... I have the wireing dirgram and iima start looking for shoert.. If its not a short problem and something else... Somebody please tell me please

 

the wiring on these cars is really old, and a little corrosion can cause added resistance...so having your lights on alone can cause too much current. If it's a short then your fuse most likely would have blown. Those lighting wires can get very hot down there... thats what made me eventually get around to redoing mine. They can get too hot to grab for any length of time.

Now it COULD be a short, but again, usually the fuse will blow before that connector would melt. This isn't a high amp or voltage circuit so it's not likely that the wire would melt before the fuse. So when I say too much current, I dont mean too much current for the circuit, I mean too much current for the condition of the circuit.