Dial lights on 2004 stopped working after replacing fuse for taillights

2004 Tacoma with dashboard lights not working. Opened up the dash to get to the rheastat and checked the power into the switch with voltmeter - no power coming in.

Checked all the fuses and all are good, so not sure why it's not getting power to the switch.

Is is possible to tap into a new fuse position and run a direct wire to the switch?

 

Do you have the 2 wire or 3 wire rheostat?

 

3 wire

 

The 3 wire rheostat is electronic but it still regulates the ground to the illumination circuit.
Green/Red wire is power from the tail fuse
White/Green wire is illumination ground
White/Black wire is body ground.

Are you certain your tail fuse has power and didn't blow again?

 

Probably possible, but a bad idea IMO. Far better to diagnose and repair the root cause.

You know the nursery rhyme about the woman who swallowed a spider to catch a fly? Making non-standard wiring changes starts to sound like that pretty quickly.
https://youtu.be/zQHmZMf6zwo