Gauge light to dimmer switch gone horribly wrong...help please

[RGdsmNewb]

Hi,

i wired my boost gauge light up to the dimmer switch as shown in the faq that is on the site... At first everything was working fine with the wire connections just twisted together... the light illuminated and my dash did as well... So i soldered the 2 connections and started putting it all back together, and then the light as well as my dash lights stopped working...

So i figured the solders may have been screwed so i cut the wires and re attached everything, and now nothing works at all, and the wires coming from my dimmer switch are hardly usable because of how short they so i need to find a new one or find a way to rewire it (if someone could tell me how to do this that would be great)...

I have no idea what happened....

Thanks for any replies

 

[Gamble97]

Sounds like something touched and you blew the fuse. Look at the fuses under the dash.

 

[RGdsmNewb]

Sounds like something touched and you blew the fuse. Look at the fuses under the dash.

k i'll check that. my issue now is that my dimmer switch really isnt wireable because i cut the wires way too short.... maybe i could re solder it i dont know

why would it blow a fuse tho if it was working fine at first.? is it because the soddered parts probably touched together with the battery still on? Ughh this is such a pain

what fuse am i looking for?

 

[ImportWarrior]

did you disconnect the battery when you were doing the install.

 

[RGdsmNewb]

did you disconnect the battery when you were doing the install.

yeah i did, not entirely sure if i disconnected it again once it lit up... . What fuse do i need to check to see if it's blown?! on my lil diagram it says 10A [ gauge ] ... Is that the right one ?

k yeah i have no idea what fuse it is... i pulled out 10A gauges and it looked fine... i dont know if that's the dimmer one though?!

Ok i found out that my TAIL fuse is blown in the engine bay... so i guess this is the culprit to my problems

Can anyone tell me how i can avoid blowing this again?

should i just hook everything up without the battery attached, then pop the new fuse in and hope that i have the polarity right? Sorry, i'm super newb to electrical stuff, thanks for the patience

 

[pullerfan]

did you tape up where you soldered? if you left them exposed a ground could touch a positive and blow a fuse, next time use butt connectors
as for your wires that are to short just get some more wire and butt connect them together and then hook them up to your switch

 

[RGdsmNewb]

ughhh... so i replaced the blown fuse, resoldered everything with no battery... then connected the dimmer again it's still not working... so im not sure if i blew the dimmer connector itself or what. Really lame. The fuse isnt blowing again either so i dont know what's wrong

I ended up just wiring the boost gauge up to the fuse for the light, i wish i had've just done that in the first place

any help would be appreciated, or if someone wants to sell me a dimmer harness that would be great

 

[pullerfan]

just do what you did for now haha, your not the first person on here to do something like that, hang in there give yourself a break then look at it again maybe you'll find something you didnt see b4

 

[RGdsmNewb]

just do what you did for now haha, your not the first person on here to do something like that, hang in there give yourself a break then look at it again maybe you'll find something you didnt see b4

yeah it's really frustrating because it was working at first!!! and this seems like such a simple install that i managed to screw up haha. Im thinking i just need to buy a new dimmer switch or let a shop deal with my mess

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Remove the dimmer switch and then simply solder longer leads off from the original, but now shortened, wiring.

Since I'm not right there I can't pretend to start directing you on how to figure out what exactly went wrong. Could be a bunch of things, but you sound like you're fairly on top of it. You'll figure it out.
But you can test your dimmer switch with a small battery and a light, or even just a multimeter.

 

[RGdsmNewb]

K so i haven't tried to fix my issue, and just randomly today my gauge lights and dimmer switch started working..... So it will work for like 5 minutes then the lights will shut off, then come on again quick... then shut off 3 minutes later... what's going on?!?!?!