No gauge backlighting

[hdorre]

A few months ago, I had a dash/headlight/foglight short. A shop fixed that by rewiring everything, and used bigger wire.

The backlighting behind the main cluster and center gauges still wont work. The illumination for the cigarette lighter and rear wiper switch dont work either (and other misc switches). The shop tried everything that they could think of. They looked pretty much everywhere.

I tested the voltage of the green/white wire behind the rheostat, and that reads ~11.6 volts. I ordered a new rheostat, so that may fix the issue. Its expected to be here Tuesday.

What else should I look at while I wait for the new dimmer?

My running lights and tails work fine, and I checked the "TAIL" fuse under the hood.
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[hdorre]

I bypassed the switch by using a paperclip to join the black and black/yellow wires.. turns out, that solved the problem. I have a bad switch.

[95gto]

Have you installed anything into the interior of the car lately or taken anything out and then re-installed it? I would make sure you don't have a short somewhere that will just burn up a new rheostat upon installation. The most common mistake I have seen is people incorrectly wiring the illumination circuit to a new radio.