Aux guages and the dimmer... (1 Viewer)

[TheGr8Doughboy]

I'm running some aux gauges and want to tie them into the rheostat so they dim with my dash lights. I've checked the schematic and thought I knew what I was doing, but I cannot get them to dim!

I've wired them up a bunch of different ways and I get everything BUT dimming... help!

Chris

 

[Spook50]

I tap into the power lead going to the light around my cigarette lighter. Seems to get pretty good voltage to power one or two extra gauges for lighting.

 

[TheGr8Doughboy]

I've got 'um lit up. I want them to dim when I dim my dash guages...

 

[Spook50]

I've got 'um lit up. I want them to dim when I dim my dash guages...

That's what the cig lighter light lead should give you. It's what I wired the dimmer on my deck to and it works great.

 

[2mbb]

The way I interpret my wiring diagram is that 12v goes to the indicator light, then from the light to the rheostat, then to ground. You essentially need to wire both sides of the light, one to power and the other to rheostat. From my experience, most aftermarket gauges ground the indicator light through the common instrument ground, and that wire has to go to a body ground to get the instrument to work. So I don't think you'll be able to get the lights to dim.

 

[Front Range 4x4]

I'm running some aux gauges and want to tie them into the rheostat so they dim with my dash lights.

Dim your dash lights? Damn, mine only go from dim to off !

 

[TheGr8Doughboy]

That's what the cig lighter light lead should give you. It's what I wired the dimmer on my deck to and it works great.

What about the cig lighter dims? What am I missing?

The way I interpret my wiring diagram is that 12v goes to the indicator light, then from the light to the rheostat, then to ground. You essentially need to wire both sides of the light, one to power and the other to rheostat. From my experience, most aftermarket gauges ground the indicator light through the common instrument ground, and that wire has to go to a body ground to get the instrument to work. So I don't think you'll be able to get the lights to dim.

I have the Haynes manual that's I'm trying to read the schematic off of. I read it as the power goes into the rheostat then out across one side of the dash lights then a third lead comes out of the rheostat that goes to ground so you control the birghtness of the lights by effectivly controlling the current that crosses the blubs vs going to ground. And that the tail light fuse is between the lights and the ground...

teach me

Thanks
Chris


Chris

 

[jwest]

There should be three wires coming from the rheostat. Just going by the color codes, which may have changed, there should be a white/black (ground point), a white/green and a green.

Tap one of your aux guage light wires to the white/green and the other to the green. This might sound counter-intuitive to you. Don't ground or tap into the white/black. The rheostat itself is already grounded.


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