When I bought my FJ60, it had a jumper in the connector that went to the dimmer switch, I removed it and plugged it into the switch so I could dim the dash lights again.
Then my dimmer switch started failing, sometimes it would work for about 15 minutes, then the dash lights went dark. Lately it hasn't worked at all.
After checking this forum it sounds like a new switch is expensive from Toyota.
Toyota calls it a rheostat in the wiring diagram, and probably in the FSM too.
I've got two fixes. The first fix bypasses the dimmer and leaves your dash lights on max bright whenever they are on, the second fix swaps a part out of a bad FJ60 switch and into a working dimmer from a different Toyota.
Please excuse the fuzziness in some of the pictures.
There are two cheap fixes for this:
Option 1. The permanent Band-aid
cost: less than $0.25 USD
time: 5 minutes mostly to unplug the broken dimmer switch
unplug the dimmer switch and plug a jumper into the connector slots that are parallel. see the pic below. The jumper is a male spade terminal on each end of a 1 inch piece of wire. (The connector in the pics is from the junkyard since I wasn't sure they used the same connector)
Option 2. Fix the dimmer switch with parts from a different Toyota using junkyard parts
cost: about $3.50
First test the potentiometer (the part the knob goes on) to see if this repair will work. Remove the bad switch from the truck, remove the back, and take the electronics out. Everything should pull out when you take the nut and washer off the shaft. Use a multimeter and put the leads on the three holes right below the shaft. I used a cheap Harbor Freight meter (my better meter was out in the shop), and set the dial to "20K" ohms resistance, as seen in the picture.
Hold the leads on the right hole and the middle hole and slowly turn the shaft both ways, you should see the numbers go up or down smoothly. Next hold the leads on the left hole and the middle hole and slowly turn the shaft both ways, you should see the numbers go up or down smoothly. When you turn it all the way left or right it's normal for one side to show an open circuit and the other to show very little or no resistance.
If it acts like the circuit is open (HF meters show a 1 on the right of the display) somewhere in the middle of rotation then your potentiometer is dirty or bad and you need a new one, or you can use the camry switch with the smaller knob.
I went to my local Pick-and-Pull junkyard found two dimmer switches from 1988-1991 Camrys (got a spare incase I fried one). They are very easy to pull out of these style Camry's, just pull the switch & small panel it's connected to out, all as one unit, then unplug the switch, done in less than 2 minutes if you go slow. If you break the panel it's mounted to, it doesn't matter.
Most Toyotas from the 1980s and early 1990s should work.
1988-1991 Camrys were the easiest to remove from all the cars I looked at.
Although I didn't pull them out, I looked at several other Toyota and at a minimum these should also work:
1992-1996 Camrys
1988-1992 Corolla
1993-1997 Corolla
This shows (from left to right) a 1989 Camry dimmer switch still in its dash panel, a Camry switch removed from it's panel, a FJ60 dimmer switch
The plug for the connector on the back is the same, the only difference that matters is the length of the shaft of the potentiometer.
After you get one of these switches, unplug the dimmer switch on the FJ60 and plug it into your junkyard dimmer switch and verify it works. If you push the connector back and down and near the hood release you should have enough wire to test it underneath the dash, just letting it hang down.
Disassemble both switches
Remove the potentiometer from both switches circuit boards by desoldering the 3 solder pads where it connects to the circuit board. I started with the Camry switch (it has two circuit boards) to get practice before moving on to the FJ60 switch. I used a small handheld torch, it works fast, but a soldering iron is better and much less likely to melt the circuit board. Check youtube for how to solder, they'll probably tell you not to use a torch, if you do, work fast so you don't scorch the circuit board.
Solder the longshaft potentiometer to the Camry circuit board. Sorry I don't have pics of this, my hands were holding the torch and the potentiometer. I had to add a little solder to make the connection better and the joint stronger. Here's the result.
Put it all back in the FJ60 dimmer switch housing, it's a tight fit, but I got it to just barely fit. Re-test your "new" switch, and reinstall. In this pic, the blue thing is the handheld mini torch I used to desolder and solder the potentiometers.
I hope this helps somebody.
Then my dimmer switch started failing, sometimes it would work for about 15 minutes, then the dash lights went dark. Lately it hasn't worked at all.
After checking this forum it sounds like a new switch is expensive from Toyota.
Toyota calls it a rheostat in the wiring diagram, and probably in the FSM too.
I've got two fixes. The first fix bypasses the dimmer and leaves your dash lights on max bright whenever they are on, the second fix swaps a part out of a bad FJ60 switch and into a working dimmer from a different Toyota.
Please excuse the fuzziness in some of the pictures.
There are two cheap fixes for this:
Option 1. The permanent Band-aid
cost: less than $0.25 USD
time: 5 minutes mostly to unplug the broken dimmer switch
unplug the dimmer switch and plug a jumper into the connector slots that are parallel. see the pic below. The jumper is a male spade terminal on each end of a 1 inch piece of wire. (The connector in the pics is from the junkyard since I wasn't sure they used the same connector)
Option 2. Fix the dimmer switch with parts from a different Toyota using junkyard parts
cost: about $3.50
First test the potentiometer (the part the knob goes on) to see if this repair will work. Remove the bad switch from the truck, remove the back, and take the electronics out. Everything should pull out when you take the nut and washer off the shaft. Use a multimeter and put the leads on the three holes right below the shaft. I used a cheap Harbor Freight meter (my better meter was out in the shop), and set the dial to "20K" ohms resistance, as seen in the picture.
Hold the leads on the right hole and the middle hole and slowly turn the shaft both ways, you should see the numbers go up or down smoothly. Next hold the leads on the left hole and the middle hole and slowly turn the shaft both ways, you should see the numbers go up or down smoothly. When you turn it all the way left or right it's normal for one side to show an open circuit and the other to show very little or no resistance.
If it acts like the circuit is open (HF meters show a 1 on the right of the display) somewhere in the middle of rotation then your potentiometer is dirty or bad and you need a new one, or you can use the camry switch with the smaller knob.
I went to my local Pick-and-Pull junkyard found two dimmer switches from 1988-1991 Camrys (got a spare incase I fried one). They are very easy to pull out of these style Camry's, just pull the switch & small panel it's connected to out, all as one unit, then unplug the switch, done in less than 2 minutes if you go slow. If you break the panel it's mounted to, it doesn't matter.
Most Toyotas from the 1980s and early 1990s should work.
1988-1991 Camrys were the easiest to remove from all the cars I looked at.
Although I didn't pull them out, I looked at several other Toyota and at a minimum these should also work:
1992-1996 Camrys
1988-1992 Corolla
1993-1997 Corolla
This shows (from left to right) a 1989 Camry dimmer switch still in its dash panel, a Camry switch removed from it's panel, a FJ60 dimmer switch
The plug for the connector on the back is the same, the only difference that matters is the length of the shaft of the potentiometer.
After you get one of these switches, unplug the dimmer switch on the FJ60 and plug it into your junkyard dimmer switch and verify it works. If you push the connector back and down and near the hood release you should have enough wire to test it underneath the dash, just letting it hang down.
Disassemble both switches
Remove the potentiometer from both switches circuit boards by desoldering the 3 solder pads where it connects to the circuit board. I started with the Camry switch (it has two circuit boards) to get practice before moving on to the FJ60 switch. I used a small handheld torch, it works fast, but a soldering iron is better and much less likely to melt the circuit board. Check youtube for how to solder, they'll probably tell you not to use a torch, if you do, work fast so you don't scorch the circuit board.
Solder the longshaft potentiometer to the Camry circuit board. Sorry I don't have pics of this, my hands were holding the torch and the potentiometer. I had to add a little solder to make the connection better and the joint stronger. Here's the result.
Put it all back in the FJ60 dimmer switch housing, it's a tight fit, but I got it to just barely fit. Re-test your "new" switch, and reinstall. In this pic, the blue thing is the handheld mini torch I used to desolder and solder the potentiometers.
I hope this helps somebody.
I even kept the Camry knob since I didn't have one for my Cruiser, will have to pick one up eventually.
