No Dash Lights, None!
 

I have a 2003 4.0 Ranger:

I installed my new radio, and used the adapter that Crutchfield sent me. Well, I hooked up both orange wires off their pigtail to my illumination wire on the deck. Problem was I was only suppose to hook up the one that said illumintaion and not the one that said illumination dimmer. So when I turned on my lights it was creating a short and blowing fuses.

Don't know why I did what your about to read because I do know better, with that said, out of curiosity (guess I do know) I started to put in higher amped fuses (location 33, under hood box, parking lamp). When I did this I saw smoke, I know I'm a dumb***, coming out of my dash. I thought great I fried my light switch. I got a new light switch and tore everything apart only to find that it was my radio shorting out, radio showed no signs of this. When I put in the bigger fuses I ended up cooking the BLUE wire with a RED stripe connected to my dimmer switch. I ran a new wire to the radio harness and now I don't have any shorts, but I still don't have any dash lights, with the exception of the radio. So is that blue with red stripe wire running from the dimmer switch connected to all of my instrument pannel and when I ran a new wire just to my radio I cut all of the dash out? Or is there something else here that I'm missing? Thanks for any input

I forgot to mention that I have gone through and checked every single fuse under the hood and in the cab. Thanks, Again

Yes...It feeds all your dash panel backlighting.

Yea, you don't need the illumination dimmer wire in the conversion harness(headunit to factory radio plug)...i just snipped it. And you really shouldn't be putting in higher amperage fuses to try and cure a problem...tends to make bigger problems.

Big thanks, I plan on taking care of this tomorrow.

I know, and I wasn't trying to cure the problem, it was just me being curious and dumb. You know when you do something and you know better, but you do it anyway? It was kind of like that, I had NO intention on leaving the higher amperage in as a fix. Thanks for the help also, Dave

Kinda like having a one night stand with your best friends sister? lol.

Somethin' like that....:hump:

Dave

When the dashlights were out, did the headlight warning chime kick out as well. I've got a possibly similar problem where when I turn my headlights on, the dashboard lights turn off (V. annoying when driving in the dark!). The light on the radio stays on but the backlights for the instrument panel and the AC/heater controls is out. Anyone have suggestions for this. Planning on doing some amateur electrical this weekend

Hopefully you didn't cook anything in doing that......LOL

1st rule about any electrical work, TURN OFF THE POWER......DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!!!

Hope you find the problem.

I wanna say number 11 under the hood... I pretty sure that's the one that went out on my buddys truck when we were wiring in some LEDs...

I'm probably a lil late though :lol:

And just wound up with the clap... now what?

This sounds more like his wife.

Dash lights
 

Loop the three and four pin together in the wiring harness. That should fix the problem. I e
ran into the same problem.

Seeing this thread you replied to is from 10 years ago, I'm thinking this is no longer a problem.

Yeah but that doesn't mean that someone else might be needing a solution for this problem.