85 Brat no dash illumination

[Scoby4wd]

I recently purchased an 85 Brat.  One of the things wrong with it is that none of the dash board gets illuminated when you turn on the lights.  Makes driving at night difficult.  Gauges all work fine you just cant see them!

Given, that all lights are out, I doubt the issue is a burnt out bulb.  I looked in the fuse panel by the steering wheel and did not see any fuses specifically for the dash.  The headlights themselves work just fine.  I tried turning the brightness adjustment knob on the headlight switch but I still get no lights.  

Any suggestions on where to look?  Are there inline fuses I am missing or perhaps a connector somewhere that is unplugged?  Maybe the headlight switch is bad?

 

Thanks

Edited November 26, 2019 by Scoby4wd

[88SubGL]

I had a similar problem on my 85 Nissan pickup. Mine would go off when I hit a bump. I traced it to the dash light dimmer switch. I replaced it with one I had from another truck, no more problem. I would think you could bypass the switch to see if that is your problem. I didn’t try that on mine because I had another switch.

[pksjeep]

Try the dimmer , turn it up an down a few times. this will hopefully clean the contacts and the lights may come on. This usually works for me. You may have to leave the switch in a slightly different position.