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Mazda BT 50 & Pickup TrucksWhile Mazda may not be known for their trucks, they have always produced quality reliable trucks for both hauling cargo, or simply crusing. BT 50
So, I'm back with another strange issue. Same '90 B2200, reg cab, carb.
Last, night. I finally got around to changing out my license plate lights, since they have not worked since I bought the truck over a year ago. I had the truck warming up. As when I first started it up, the interior lights all worked, except for the dome light. (The mirror and dome light fell off one day..) I went to the back, and changed the lights out. So somewhere from unscrewing the housings, and putting new bulbs in, the dash lights no longer turned on.
I first assumed, a fuse blew which is odd, but maybe its on the same circuit as the license lights. Checked for a fuse, non existent. My next guess, would be the dimmer switch. Would this be too simple to assume? Since the lights on the gauge cluster flickered once and while, fiddling with the dimmer switch seemed to fix that issue. I have not checked voltage on the dimmer switch, yet. If that is such the case, I will do such thing and come back with the voltage.
Yes, the tail lights, front marker lights, license light, and the dash cluster illumination lights are all on the same circuit, protected by the fuse labeled "TAIL". This is intentional so if the dash illumination lights do not operate, then one likely has no marker or tail lights. The dimmer wheel switch simply regulates the amount of voltage to the dash cluster illumination lights.
Ahh, I see ok. Well I still have tail lights, license plate lights, and marker lights. So Im assuming, that ought to eliminate much of a fuse being the problem child. Guess, I'll have to put my nose to the grind stone and figure out what broke.
Also pardon me being a noob, on electrical. I tried to avoid it like church, since electrical work and me, mix like an oil fire and water.
A bit stumped here, had a look at the TAIL fuse, that was in good shape. Decided to take out the license bulbs, since that's what started this whole issue, nothing there. However I fiddled with my battery cables, they came on dim. I had noticed that the battery ground cable, is coming apart up at the battery post. I assume this very well may be my issue, if so how would I go about replacing this cable. It doesn't seem as straight forward, like on my 1972 Dodge. Also while, fiddling with the dimmer switch it seemed to flicker my lights when I turned the **** up, or down. It liked to stay dead center.
I had noticed that the battery ground cable, is coming apart up at the battery post. I assume this very well may be my issue, if so how would I go about replacing this cable. It doesn't seem as straight forward, like on my 1972 Dodge.
First thing is to attend to the ground cable that is bad.
True, the factory negative/ground cable is complex, with multiple mounting connections to the body and chassis along its way. The negative cable attaches to the body about 6 inches from the battery, then continues down and attaches to the chassis by the right motor mount, then keeps going.
If the cable is bad at the connection to the battery, you could simply replace the terminal, but I consider battery terminals like this to be "emergency only" as they typically corrode where the copper wire attaches.
If my truck, and only the first 6 inches of the negative cable were affected, I would disconnect at the first body mounting location, cut off the short piece going to the battery, and simply add a new short molded battery cable and mount BOTH the remaining part of the factory cable and the new cable to that body mounting point together. In fact, I have done EXACTLY that on my 1998 Frontier which had a similar negative cable going to multiple ground points. See
Yeah, I noticed the ground cable went 6 inches to a body mount and then went into what is presumably the main harness of the truck. I honestly do not like that style of terminal. As I've either yanked the wire out of them when disconnecting a battery, or they were so corroded that it gave the Titanic a run for its money.
Noted, this is coming off the ground cable, while not corroded. It is concerning that it is exposed. Since I do live in a very wet climate where that could get corroded very easily.
I am reviving this thread for a quick update.
I believe I have found the issue. After a few weeks of driving with no interior light's. Under braking and harsh cornering the light's would flicker on. I started to think that possibly a wire is exposed and rubbing against the frame or something is grounding it's self out in the dash.
Come to find, highlighted in red. Is the Tail Fuse, as where the original fuse is burnt out. So I have to take out the fuse panel. Which leaves a new question is there a certain trick to pull it out?
Make sure you disconnect the battery cables from the battery FIRST!
Then you can remove the fuse panel door (single Phillips screw in your pic) and then remove the single Phillips screw at the top of the fuse panel, and work the whole fuse panel out of the hole in the dash.......hopefully there is enough slack that you can access the rear of the fuse panel to correct your wiring there.
Alright, thank you for that. I took out the fuse box last night. I noticed on fixing that wiring, that the tail fuse had 4 wires, two of those were white, and the other two were green. The two white wires were hot they both had 12 volts going to them, and the two green wires, had nothing going to them. I would assume that those are the ground wires. After a minute of fiddling with the wiring, I had noticed that when the two white wires, were touching (with the battery on for a test of the lights), that all the lights light up, even the dash lights. I moved them to where they are no longer touching, and the lights went off. I had done this several times, to confirm it and every time the lights lit up. Eventually I decided to wire in an ATO fuse holder, for those two wires just to see what happened. After wiring that in, only the marker, tail lights, and license plates lit up, the dash lights did not lit up again. I assume, the next step is chasing the wire inside my dash.
Anyone else deal with something similar?
Sorry. I've had my 1988 since 1994, and never have had the fuse box out. I have added a couple of fuse taps into it though, for aftermarket cruise control, aftermarket tach.
My only light issue has been a bad illumination light/tail light circuit, which I fixed by installing a used headlight switch into my combination switch.
If you don't have a PDF of the wiring manual, post or message me with your E-mail address.
02-26-2023, 02:47 PM
'90 B2200 Interior lights
