Electrical question: 92 Eclipse GS

[89Mirageman]

Recently picked up a 92 Eclipse GS on the cheap with a bad auto trans, pulled all of the swap parts at the yard and got it up and running with the manual trans. Now I have an electrical problem I guess. The lights for the cluster are not working along with various other interior lights, HVAC ect. I pulled the cluster and traced the lights to two pins, one is a green/white wire (power) and the other is black/yellow (ground). With the switch for the lights on the black/yellow shows very dim when I probe it with my test light, the green/white is bright. Is this normal? I'm thinking the black/yellow shouldn't have any power at all since its a ground, is that correct?

A quick search on Tuners pointed me towards the dimmer switch on the dash but bypassing that does nothing. Even when I completely unplug it that wire still has power going to it. I'm thinking a short or something but I looked up under the dash with a light and don't see anything out of place. Here are the diagrams from the FSM if anyone cares to look over them. Thanks!


Oh yeah, D-04 pin 4 is the one in question.

 

[misterfixit]

Green/White is the ligting feed. It should show +12v with the lights on. Nowt with the lights off. If the eclipse is set up like other Mitsu's The dash lights hang off the tal light relay feed. With the fuse out you should be able tobell it out back to the fuse terminal.

The black with the yellow is the dimmer switch and it should be a variable resistance back to earth.

First two questions. 1, Do you have 12v at the dimmer switch across the g/w and B/Y?
2, do the tail lights and the brake lights function correctly?

Next question. When you swapped the shifter what happened to the illumination feed for the stick selector? Has that been shorted? If so that could be throwing the voltage up to tha dash. Connector D18 on the floor. (Page 8-90, '91 Laser Talon : Volume 2)

Let us know how you get on.

Rich

 

[89Mirageman]

1. I do have 12v at the B/Y and the G/W wires. However when I use a test light the B/Y is a lot dimmer, not sure if that matters or not. 2. Tail lights and brake lights are working fine.

The connectors for the light indicators that went to the auto shifter are tied up and out of the way with a cable tie so they are not shorted. I've done this on a few Mitsu auto to manual swaps with no problems yet.

A buddy mentioned that maybe I left a ground unhooked when I removed the dash to replace the pedal and shifter assembly but I checked the manuals and they are all in place.

 

[misterfixit]

Ok, great.

At the rheostat the black wire should trace back to ground Can you bell (test + confirm) that with a meter?
Next with the rheostat out and test the b/y wire you may see voltage if there are still bulbs hooked up to it. This is what you are seeing above?

For every interior light the b/y wire acts as a ground, which is varied in resistance by the rheostat. If any bulbs are connected they provide a link to the 12v line, but you'll see a voltage drop. If you look at the b/y line from the bulbs with the rheostat connected it should be a variable ground (ground with low resistance, then higher at the other end of the scale)

Simple check, if you bridge B/y to B at the rheostat what happens? If the illumination now works, check the continuity and resistance at the rheostat.

Rich

 

[89Mirageman]

Fixed it! I'm 99% sure I put a jumper between the B & B/Y the first time to eliminate the dimmer as the problem but I'm not sure what I did wrong. Went out this morning and did it again with a paper clip and the lights work fine when I switch them on. I just cut the wires and soldered them together. I'm sure I can find a good dimmer in the yard but who really needs a dimmer switch?

Thanks buddy!