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3K views 8 replies 2 participants last post by  drtlight 
#1 ·
Hi,

I have a 1981 Rabbit Convertible that I'm having a time trying to troubleshoot. The instrument cluster lights and running lights simultaneously went out the other day. They would work for a good while(20 mins, 30 mins, an hour), then quit or just go off and on. Now they don't come on at all. Everything else(headlights, blinker brake, etc.) seems to have power. I've tried cleaning the grounds, all my fuses look good, and I can't find any obvious faults when I'm tracing the wiring diagrams. Any thoughts on what I should look for at this point?

Thanks
 
#2 ·
The cluster lights go bad, they tend to go out all at once.
If some of your cluster lights work, then power is ok, bulbs are bad.

The side markers are usually corroded grounds on the light sockets or corrosion on the sockets themselves.
 
#3 ·
Lights in the cluster tested good this afternoon; I jumped a lead from the battery to the cluster lights pin on the headlight switch interface and they apparently all work. In the process of checking for loose/corroded wiring on the fuse block though, I got the cluster lights to work for a short bit. I kind of assume I have a bad connection down there.
 
#4 ·
It is then possible the switch is bad, as the early rabbits didn't have a fused circuit for the lights.
 
#6 ·
Well, I found a problem and made a new one. :cool:

I looked at the terminals going into the fuse block, and the one I needed was carboned over. Cleaned it up as best I could and I got it working. I cleaned all the pins for that matter, using some electrical terminal cleaner I picked up at the store and a q-tip. So the dash lights work.

But now the tach, gas gauge, and battery/oil leds are dead. Hooray! More wire tracing...

Thank you for the assists so far, by the way.
 
#7 ·
That could be the voltage stabilizer, as that powers the gauges and the led's. They are like 78 cents at mouser.com KA7810
 
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#8 ·
I saw that in one of your other posts. At that price I'll change it if even just for giggles. Checked the voltage across the battery just now though and I've got no charge. I changed the alternator out with a remanufactured one just a few months ago, so I'm going to see what's up with that.
 
#9 ·
I used some contact cleaner on the voltage stabilizer just to check, and the cluster is now resurrected. I guess when one set of contacts get cleaned, the rest get jealous. Also, cleaning up the carbon on the block cleared up the problem with the running lights. I'll just have to pull the fuse block apart regularly to make sure its not a recurring problem.

The alternator is doing its job fine too, it just wasn't kicking in on low rpms after startup.

Thanks for the assist!
 
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