Installed lighted 4x4 switch, now lights out!

Hello all,
Six months or so ago, I installed rcbs204's lighted 4X4 switch mod. it worked fine for a while. Now it and the heater/AC dash lights are out. I checked and rechecked the connections; they look OK. Other symptoms: the 10A tail light fuse is not blown; the indicator lights in the A/C and recirc. switches work; if there is a light in the emergency flasher switch, it doesn't work; the clock and odometer lights dim slightly when the headlights are turned on; the dash light dimmer doesn't work.
Anyone have any suggestions where to look for the problem?

Hoodat

Anatidaephobia - the fear that you are being watched by a duck

 

Sure sounds like a fuse. Wish i knew more.

 

I agree, but if I read the wiring diagram right, it should be the tail light fuse. That was also implied in another post here somewhere I found--that the tail light fuse also supplied the heater/AC dash lights.
Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.

 

Check all your other fuses for shits and grins

 

Agreed. Many people have blown fuses doing this mod. If you haven't checked them all, you can't say it's not a fuse.

Frank

 

I would check all of the fuses with a multimeter.

 

Well, that was unanimous
I already checked a few under the dash. D'you think I should check those under the hood also?
I forgot to mention explicitly in the original post that I followed rcbs204's instructions about tapping into the heater/AC dash light wires; those lights are out now, as mentioned.
Thanks to all who responded
Hoodat

Evolution doesn't take prisoners.

 

Might as well... make sure all your fuses are good to go...

Then disconnect the lighted 4x4 wires and start troubleshooting. See if your illumination returns to the heather/ac dash lights.

 

the only other thing that I can think is to check the actual wires that you tapped into for the a/c controls. those things are so small that you might have clipped more than just the shielding.

could the bulbs in there have blown? that might be an ignorant question

 

is this a common problem? this I'd the first I've heard of it...

 

How did you check the fuses?

 

^ Same here.
The only thing i can think of is if quick connects were used to splice into the wires maybe one got cut. I went the soldering method and didn't experience any problems.

 

I solved the problem The plug to the rheostat to dim the dash lights was unplugged I had installed mhadden's excellent mod, adding cruise control, and I had to go back in to the gauge cluster to get the cruise light to work. Either I didn't plug in the rheostat, or it came loose while I was reassembling the dash. All the lights work now
Thanks to all who responded. Since everyone who responded said check fuses, but the fuses were all good, I went looking for something else I screwed up.
Hoodat

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
-Anon

 

The word "fuse" was not found in any of my posts...

Regardless, congrats!

 

The fuses in my Tacoma have the ends of the conductor visible on the outboard end of the fuse, on either side of the amperage. If you have an ohmmeter with pointed probes, you can touch the exposed ends.
Now it occurs to me that if you find a blown fuse on a live circuit, you'll let the smoke out of your ohmmeter


Cowboy--my bad. But 'fuse' did appear in a quote in one of your posts.

Hoodat

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.