Hi All,

I was installing a stereo today .. and it seems now my dash backlight has gone.

I presume I've blown a fuse but I can't find which one .. none of the ones in the fuse box (under the dash) seem to obviously match up and I checked most of them. Also the other lights on the dash are fine it's just the backlights.

Anyone know what might have broken this? I did have the wrong wiring harness and at one point when I plugged it in and the dash lights lit up so I'm guessing I crossed a wire somewhere (idiot :nuts:) - but after this is was working fine, it's only now I've got the correct harness wiring in that it's broken - and even after disconnecting the stereo it's still broken - confusing thing is that I am not aware of any of the stereo pinouts actually turning on with the lights it's just constant, ACC switched/GND/speakers so thats got me a little perplexed.

Any ideas of what to check would be appreciated.

Best Regards,
Trent

Check fuses under the bonnet too. Do you have an Operators manual for the car - which might be a help.

The stereo harness often has a "dash lights" wire to illuminate radio buttons etc when dash lights on, depending on series of car, the "illumination" wire can be a few different colours.

Real tired and dopey here tonight - will check back in morning and see if anyone has been able to give you more-specific info.

Check fuses under the bonnet too. Do you have an Operators manual for the car - which might be a help.

The stereo harness often has a "dash lights" wire to illuminate radio buttons etc when dash lights on, depending on series of car, the "illumination" wire can be a few different colours.

Real tired and dopey here tonight - will check back in morning and see if anyone has been able to give you more-specific info.

Yeh I checked under the bonnet as well.

I multi metered up all the wires during install and found no source of "illumination" wire.

(1994/TS/Wagon/4G54/EFI/Auto)

OK I found it .. turns out they are under "TAIL" lights in the bonnet fuse switch. Which makes sense now I think about it.

Didn't notice they were gone too ;)

green/white wire?

Also turns out that the wire I thought was 'ground' (green) was actually illumination.. ;) And the harness for the stereo actually has no ground .. hence the ground link that runs up from the chassis and was screwed to the stereo mounting posts.

Problem was I multimetered/tested with the lights off so green was working as a ground.. for future reference - looking at the connector side of the vehicle plug:
(1994 TS Wagon 4cyl EFI Automagic)

Top far left red = front left Positive
Bottom far left red/white stripe = front left negative
bottom left black = front right postiive
top right black/white stripe = front right negative
top right green = illumination (+12v when lights on)
bottom right red/green = constant +12v
bottom far right red/blue = accessories switched +12v

I got a harness from alberts but they didnt have the correct one but they had one lying around with the correct plug but wrong pinout so I had to rewire it.

Sorted then!! It's common for the OEM Magna/Verada HU's to ground them selves through the HU casing to the mounting-brackets to the vehicle chassis.

Glad you worked it out, and got plenty of AMC responses too - another AMC success story!!