instrument panel lights

[Megunticook]

I road-tested my newly rewired headlights this evening. The good news is that they're brighter than ever and none of the relays exploded into flames (hah!--although I did take the precaution of disconnecting the battery before installing the inline glass 20A fuse).

By the way, I may have wired my relays backwards--that is, the dimmer switch is connected to the 85 terminal and the 86 is ground. Seemed to work just fine, but are the relays designed to have the current flow only in one direction? Will I damage the relay by having it backwards? Easy fix, just curious if it matters.

Back to my issue though...the bad news during my testdrive was that only one instrument panel light was lit, the other 2 were dark. This surprised me, as I removed the panel recently and cleaned it all up, installed new bulb assemblies everywhere.

What puzzles me is this--since power for the instrument panel lights is obviously making it to the circuit board (as evidenced by the working light, which happens to be the one on the far side nearest the right blinker), what would be preventing the other 2 lights from working? They're all connected by copper, right? Is it that only one of the lights is properly grounded? What do you electrical gurus recommend I do to fix this?

Here's the diagram of the circuit board from my FSM:
http://edgeis.com/graphics/projects/truck/instrument_panel_cb_diagram.gif

And here's a shot of my refurbished circuit board before I installed it:
http://edgeis.com/graphics/projects/truck/instrument_panel_cb_refurb.jpg

Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

The only other problem with the instrument panel is that the highbeam indicator isn't working--I suspect there's a problem with the plug-in harness, if need be I'll cut the red/white wire from the dimmer switch at the harness plug, add a bullet connector, and solder the wire directly to the copper near the highbeam indicator bulb.

[BaggedIndy]

It doesn't matter which way the coil on the relay is hooked up as long as it doesn't have a diode on it.

[Megunticook]

Thanks--I won't worry about switching the leads on my relays then.

Regarding the instrument cluster lights--the more I look at the wiring diagram and the photo of my circuit board the more I can't understand why only one light would be working (I'll check the bulbs again in the other 2 but I'm sure I installed brand new ones).

Could there be something physically blocking the light in there? I'm trying to remember if there was some sort of blue transluscent plastic associated with those lights.

[Megunticook]

Before this thread drops off into oblivion...anybody have any ideas? Didn't think my question was THAT dumb...

[buck99]

double check you light bulbs. May have mixed in some bad ones.

[Speed Dragon]

Bad connection or ground? Some light circuits are separate from the others I think.

[Megunticook]

Turned out 2 of those brand new bulb assemblies were faulty--I can't quite see why, they're simple as dirt, but I frigged with the damn thing for a good hour before finally realizing that 2 of the sockets weren't getting the juice to the bulb (the one for the highbeam indicator just needed to be re-seated in its place).

I finally put the new bulbs into a couple of the old original sockets and it worked fine.

Can't believe that even after replacing everything with brand new parts I still have to burn precious time troubleshooting some dumb problem like that.

Ah, well, at least I felt some satisfaction driving tonight with my entire instrument panel in full view. Good to have that pesky little issue behind me.