Dash Lights and Radio Nightmare

Hi all,

after searching through posts on Instrument Lighting, I came to the conclusion that I would need a new headlight switch and my worries would be over. After waiting 3 weeks for the switch to arrive from across the pond and then installing the &*%$ (bastard of a job) I'm no further ahead. My instruments do not light up. Headlights work, interior roof light works, tailights work, but alas no dash lights. The switch was installed with the battery disconnected, the little black wire was reinstalled on the new switch along with the plug, fuses were changed in the fuse box for the hell of it!

The clock goes out when the headlights are turned on plus the previous owner had relieved me of the radio. When I purchased the truck a few months ago there was a pull out radio in the slot. It wasn't working but thought nothing of it as I had an Alpine for it at home. Well it was definately a "pull out" unit. Once I was ready to install the Alpine I found out it was just sitting in the slot. No cage!!! Further more the wires had been hacked off, so now I'm left with a bunch of wires I have no idea where they are supposed to go. My thoughts are, could one or two of these wires (since they are not connected to the stereo) be causing the dash lights not to work???

1988 Laredo Automatic

Hmmm. Possibly. I believe I tapped into an orange wire in order for the stereo bezel to light up; it dims (along with the instrumentation) as the headlight switch is turned.

Perhaps this would help for the stereo wiring color coding. Also there are plenty of threads on this issue.
http://www.installdr.com/QuickWiring.html

http://snowboard247.blogspot.com/2005/05/1984-01-jeep-cherokee-xj-wiring-info.html
HTH
sounds like you've got the same problem I had, I had a similar situation with my radio. The illum wire was grounding intermittelntly, and cause my dash lighting to go wonky. After I installed a new radio and hooked it up properly I've not had any issues.

Cheers XJade, that may well solve my radio problems...

Cheers 87Manche, looks like i'll have to hook the radio up then see. Anyone have ideas as to the mounting of a normal size radio compared to the large hole jeep included for theirs? It's one of the reasons I haven't yet fitted the radio (besides the wiring mess!)

SuperRoo said:

Cheers 87Manche, looks like i'll have to hook the radio up then see. Anyone have ideas as to the mounting of a normal size radio compared to the large hole jeep included for theirs? It's one of the reasons I haven't yet fitted the radio (besides the wiring mess!)

Click to expand...

I'll have to dig around but I may very well have a radio cage for you. It's yours for free if I can find it. May take a week for it to ship over to the UK. Can you wait that long? Or do you want to blast some Britney Spears right now?

mine didn't have a large hole and a standard din radio mounted up fine. SOunds as if a PO on yours hacked up the plastic dash surround.
Might want to look and see if you can find a plastic dash surround that hasn't been molested. Take you about 15 minutes to swap it out.

Cheers XJade, that would be great. Just tell me how much for postage and I can paypal or send you the cash. As for the one-piece plastic trim surround that covers the whole dash, that hasn't been hacked up. It's just the whopping great gap underneath it that is the problem:roll:

hey man, i had the same radio problem as you. the aftermarket cage that came with my alpine did not fit because the hole was too large. i fabbed a bracket that screws into the heater controls that i can mount the front of the radio to. just gotta be creative. :roll:

Well I finally have my interior lights working. How? :confused1 No idea! I retraced all my steps (again) then screwed it all back together, plugged the battery back in, turned om the lights and hey presto - we had lights once again in the dash and T-bar shifter. Also at this stage I never touched the mess of radio wires. Thanks for that link - 87manche, I have since been able to trace the mess of wire colours for the radio to match up with the Alpine. All i've got to do now is plug on some lugs for the wires and i'll have some tunes for the ears:music: ...