gearhead141

I have searched through many posts trying to find someone who has experienced this problem. Ever since I bought my 1985 Trans Am, the instrument lights have been dim. Rolling the dimmer wheel has no effect. But if the dimmer wheel is rolled all the way up, the dome light comes on. I can barely hear the chime when the door is open, so that works. I really thought it was the remote dimmer, so I removed it and replaced the switching transistor with an NTE98. No change at all. Now when I bought the car, there was no radio in it at all and the harness connector for it was cut. I was able to get a stock radio and restored the wiring. Since then, I have installed a modern radio and it works fine and all other lights work fine, i.e. the auto trans indicator, etc. I have swapped out the headlight/dimmer assembly and that also had no effect. My INST/LP fuse is not blown either.

What could be causing this dim instrument cluster issue?

mantaguy

iTrader: (5)

This is all I can find This info is for 86 Firebirds

gearhead141

Thanks Mantaguy. I think I'm going to check the voltage on the brown wire because that's where the rheostat is connected. My FSM says to check both the Tail Fuse and the Inst Fuse, but I have tail lights and instrument lights. The cluster lights are just dim.

gearhead141

I checked all the bulbs on the cluster. They are all 194 bulbs and in good condition. The remote dimmer is functioning properly (NTE98). I swapped in an NTE104 and that didn't work at all. The dimmer wheel (rheostat) has to be turned all the way up to get the lights bright enough. What am I missing here? It's like I need more rheostat to get the lights brighter. At this point, I would be able to drive at night but not able to read the trip meter.

gearhead141

I wanted to close this out and say I have fixed my issue. I removed the cluster and replaced all the lights(11) with 168 mini-bulbs. I did not realize that the 168 part has one candlepower more than the 194 part. I can now see my trip meter fine while driving at night. I still have to turn the dimmer wheel to full bright, but I can live with that. And if you want to know more about remote dimmers, go to the electronics section.

I sure hope GM made some improvements when they brought the electronic speedo cluster out in 1986!

Gary L