Pretty much exactly what is on the tin. I have a 84 fiero 2.5l and recently I decided to upgrade my radio to a working one. Nothing too wild just a $40 walmart radio kit. Just enough to rock out with my headrest speakers. The swap went well and everything seems to work just fine except the following morning I found out that the red backlighting for the gauges wont come on anymore. Its kinda a head scratcher because I didn't mess with any wiring that wasn't already being used for the old radio.
Sorry for the wait as iv been super busy, I checked the fusebox and the only fuse listed is a 20 amp gauge light and that is good and I also checked the dimmer switch and that was turned up all the way so that cant be my problem either. Its also worth mentioning that my dinger isnt working anymore either since installing my new radio.
I dont think I got into the dimmer switch wiring. Does anyone have a wiring schematic for an 84 fiero? I tried googling it but cant find a site that can get me the right one.
There is a wire that plugs into the original head unit which would dim the head unit lights along with the gauge lights. I believe it is an orange wire, but don't take that color as fact. Anyway, it is likely that a $40 Walmart unit does not have any dimming function and so if that wire got plugged into the new head unit somewhere it could be causing a short or other issue which is stopping all the lights.
84 uses same light dimmer as rest... See my Cave, Dash Dimmer
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
I know my lights stopped working when I put the new radio in so I think my next plan of attack will be to go through and wire the old radio back up and see if the lights come back on. If so then I can trace back to where the problem is.
The Gauges fuse should be a 10 amp put the key in the ignition with door open and wiggle the fuse or slightly pull out and move around until you hear the door/key dinging sound once you do hear this then you should have dash lights. These contacts can relax and not make good contact with the fuse.
UPDATE I GOT IT WORKING!!! Sorry for bumping a old thread but I found the problem and was able to fix it and I want to share my findings in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.
Alright so the problem actually reared its head in the form of a blown 20amp taillight fuse, the 20amp TAIL. But as soon as I replaced it and attempted to turn the lights on the new fuse would dead short and pop. Knowing that the problem didn't arise until I swapped radios I took the new radio out, replaced the fuse and vola, Lights. (and angelic singing). I dug through my papers on the radio and in the diagrams it showed two power sources that fed it, 12V constant and another smaller wire, 12V accessory which would only become hot once the key was flipped to accessories. When I installed the radio I found two wires that went into the side of the old radio, an orange and a brown wire (the 12V constant) the Orange being the hot wire and brown being ground. So I disgarded the other ground wire and just went with this one as the new radio only had one ground wire. Turns out that the brown wire being used as the ground is what was causing my short that blew the fuse. I swapped it out with the other ground wire and so far everything is working as it should.
