dash light problem

[bbullsj]

i have a 97 k1500. i went to turn on the lights one night and i don't have and back lighting on the dash. all the gauge lights, the heater control lights don't work. the blinkers, blue brights light, green lights light, and all of the other service lights work both when the lights are on and off. somebody told me that it could possibly be a bad resistor in the dash lights dimmer switch and that the switch supplies power to those lights. i've checked all the fuses obviously but i don't understand why the dash lights won't work but the service lights would. any help would be great, thanks.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by bbullsj

i have a 97 k1500. i went to turn on the lights one night and i don't have and back lighting on the dash. all the gauge lights, the heater control lights don't work. the blinkers, blue brights light, green lights light, and all of the other service lights work both when the lights are on and off. somebody told me that it could possibly be a bad resistor in the dash lights dimmer switch and that the switch supplies power to those lights. i've checked all the fuses obviously but i don't understand why the dash lights won't work but the service lights would. any help would be great, thanks.

it is possible that the dash backround light feed wire is shorted out... if no fuses where found to be blown[use meter] this is most likely the dash control circuit/resistor/switch...

i had an 84 that had a shorted wire with this circuit and it was a pita....found short at wire chaffed into metal corner of support for center console...very hard to find because the wires had to be moved to see the very small wear on insulation...i had ohmmeter on wire as i searched and as i got close the short [ohms] started to jump...