Dash Cluster Bulb Holders Wanted - Mk2 Escort

[Allanscort]

Hi,

My dash lighting for the instrument cluster has stopped working completely! Blew something when swopping the bulbs stupidly! Looked at wiring, fuses etc nothing!

Plan now is to hard wire these if possible. I read on here, I think of someone doing similar. Difficult to solder on to the connectors for the single bulb holders so thought about joining up two of the wired ones and running to a relay/switch.

Does anyone have the bulb holders with wire, 3 bulb holders? Or help/advice on best way to do this?

 

cheers,

Allan

[colr6]

Does it have a dimmer switch ? Give that a check.

[Allanscort]

Just now, colr6 said:

Does it have a dimmer switch ? Give that a check.

No it doesn't have a dimmer, mostly working before I fiddled with it! Bulb holders are fine, power not getting to the cluster.

[colr6]

Just had a quick look at a diagram, would appear to be grey/ yellow wire is for illumination. Put a feed to that wire to check all lights are working on dash if ok go into h/ lamp switch plug and find which wire is live on side and h/lights and tap into that one. Can't give you anymore info as I can't understand the escort diagram to find where the feed for the cluster comes from. sorry.

[Allanscort]

Thanks, okay I'll check that. I had a qualified auto electrician working on it. He owns a rs2000 but didn't manage to get it working either.

[Rally Pack 2000]

The circuit board connections are very fragile on Mk2 instruments. When you unplug it the tiny copper connectors often lift off the backing and when you plug it back in again they get scrunched up and no longer make connection. The board is really too fragile to solder. The instruments also have a small loom to get power to the gauge on the side. That loom is powered by one of the bulb sockets and the loom reaches out from that. At that point where this particular bulb connector clips in is where I would look for circuit board damage as well if none of the bulbs are illuminating. Its important though to first heck the long plug connectors as the circuit board copper connections are so easily damaged at that point and were never designed for constant plug removal.

[Allanscort]

Yeah I checked that pin on the block, seems to be power there. Thinking the same, that it must be a break in the circuit board where it feeds to that bulb. Going to try and upload a pic, I want to run power to it to check the board but scared I might damage something else.

[Rally Pack 2000]

6 minutes ago, Allanscort said:

Yeah I checked that pin on the block, seems to be power there. Thinking the same, that it must be a break in the circuit board where it feeds to that bulb. Going to try and upload a pic, I want to run power to it to check the board but scared I might damage something else.

A photo of the circuit boards of both main gauges without the bulb holders plugged in would be helpful

[Allanscort]

 Just realised I checked the wrong wire. The grey/yellow has no resistance showing. Electrician did say there was no power getting to it and a jumble of wires behind dash!

What now?

[Allanscort]

I don't think there is any other option but resort back to original plan to hard wire the bulbs to a switch. I need the bulb loom complete with the holders (X3). If anyone has this, let me know.

Thanks

Guess I can run a new feed from a switch to the connector pin (grey/yellow) if the board is still intact.

[Allanscort]

On ‎13‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 18:11, colr6 said:

Just had a quick look at a diagram, would appear to be grey/ yellow wire is for illumination. Put a feed to that wire to check all lights are working on dash if ok go into h/ lamp switch plug and find which wire is live on side and h/lights and tap into that one. Can't give you anymore info as I can't understand the escort diagram to find where the feed for the cluster comes from. sorry.

Hi mate,

Could you explain in more detail how to tap into the headlamp switch plug and where it might be located? Will it be on the column, at the stalk?

[colr6]

The multi plug from the switch will be alongside the column, wouldn't be surprised if the yellow/ grey doesent pick it's feed up from there. If not put sidelights on find which one is live bearing in mind there will two live at any one time one been a feed for the switch, then put h/lamps on and see if it still maintains a live and goes off when switch is off. Splice into that with a connector up to the pin on your cluster plug. If the wiring from the plug to the dash lights is ok it should light up. If you know which pin it is on the cluster you can go straight to that for a test on the cluster. Hope that makes sense .

[Allanscort]

Thanks again for the info. The feed is now fixed, found a break in the wiring. Just the circuit board to fix now as there is a break in it at the bottom bulb for the earth. Going to try some copper tape to join it, failing that maybe get a replacement cluster off ebay and swop whole circuit. Getting there! So much for having a so called proper auto electrician look at!