Dash Lights on the Blink

ruwallydog

Took the 340 out for the 4th to see fireworks and when we started to head back my Mac and anchor lights all worked fine but my dashboard (gauge) lights weren't working. I tried to get them to come up by adjusting the dimmer switch but they would only stay on momentarily before blinking on and off. 

My instinct is the dimmer switch is bad and needs to be replaced but was curious if anyone had experienced the same issue?

Side note: when i turned the nav/anchor on i would pick up interference (static squealing) on my cockpit speakers as well which seemed odd. 

Thoughts welcomed!

hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July.

kurt

Dream_Inn

That squealing may be an indicator of a bad ground.  Could start with the grounding of those lights.

ruwallydog

Thanks Dream! Hmmmm. Hadn't thought  of that but that does make sense. Having the boat recently transported might have jiggled something loose.

Do they typically have a common ground or are they all separate? 

Best

JC290

common ground on a lot of the things

ruwallydog

Electrical is not my strong suit.

Ok...ok...most of the things that need to be repaired are not my strong suit.

brian9650

My dash lights quit working on my 270 and it ended up being the dimmer module. I just jumpered around the dimmer module and the lights came on. Just left it the jumper until I got the new module. Removed the jumper installed the new dimmer module and all works fine.

Michael T

I'd go ground first then switches - jump around a switch to test it. 

ruwallydog

Tackling this is a few weeks...Is the ground for the switches behind the cockpit dash panel or should I be looking somewhere else?

thx

youstolemybeer

if its like the 265 then you will have an itty bitty tiny ground wire behind the dash board.  Seriously the wire will be small compared to the electrical load it is expected to handle.
Now for me to get on my soapbox.
I was tired of all the flakey electrical gremlins on my boat (1995 fv265). Guess what, $50 for 8g wire/connectors, fuse block and beer fixed the problems. I ran hot and ground from the battery up to the dash.  blower,lights and radio are all now ran off one home run. mmmmm now all my electrical problems are a thing of the past.
Just something for ya to think about. 
Im off my soapbox now, back to our regularly scheduled programming

Michael T

Good points YSMB! Get on your soapbox any time LOL

ruwallydog

YSMB...very helpful. That's exactly what I will do as well. Thank you!