Painless Problems Again

[blykins]

I posted a thread on two terminals being dead a week ago....Since my car is now 2.5 hours away, I can just go work on it on the weekends.

When I went back I did some more testing. I don't really care if the two terminals are bad....I won't need them....and just as long as they don't cause any other problems, I could just forget about them.

But this next problem intrigues me.

I went through with a tester (one shaped like a screwdriver with a light inside) and tested each terminal again. Once with the key off to test the ones that are constantly hot and once with the key on to test the ones that are keyed hot.

The light lit up for everyone except for the two that were mentioned previously.....but....

I noticed that on the "dome light" terminal (which is not hooked up to anything and never will be) the light wasn't as bright as all the others.

Now why would this be? Would there be something with the fact that it's a dome light? Is this light dim because it's supposed to be ran through another switch or a rheostat? Or is it dim because there's something on the connection in the fuse panel itself causing resistance?

All other items that are wired in right now work perfectly without a hitch....so I thought if there was something backfeeding or causing a problem, it would present itself elsewhere.

So far I have the gauges connected, a headlight switch to turn the gauge lights on, a fuel pump, the key switch of course, and the MSD ignition crap.

[Jack21]

Your "dome light" is drawing juice through a resistance somewhere. Better find it and explain it, or disconnect it.

Dome lights usually work as a complete-the-ground circuit. The hot wire runs through the bulb(s), then to a grounding switch on the door. A voltage at the switch would read the resistance of the dome light bulb.

So, if you have a dome light wire, and no dome or courtesy light, you have???

[blykins]

There's not even a wire......it's just a screw on the terminal block on the fuse panel with a "dome light" label beside of it like the rest of them are. There is nothing hooked to it....not even a wire.

[blykins]

ttt

[Roscoe]

Have you contacted Painless Tech? Maybe you have a bad fuseblock.

Roscoe

[vettestr]

Could you be checking a lug with a reostat inline? Check the voltage on terminal and then rotate headlight sw. for the dimming option = does it change with sw rotation?. The dash lights are designed to be adjustable and dome light (are very easy to swap 1 wire on headlight sw). The dome light circut is also a power always on deal and uses ground supplied by door sw to turn on.... check for that issue also