Instrument Lights

[Greg_D]

I just got back from flying my '94 Ovation at night for the first time in a while.  The glare shield lights worked fine, but the backlights on all of the instruments don't appear to be working, or are extremely dim.  Any ideas where to look 1st?  The circuit breaker was recycled and hadn't popped.  Is there a fuse somewhere behind the panel?

[jaylw314]

Not sure about the ovation.  On the J there are two screw caps under the glareshield and panel rheostats that cover the two fuses.  They are Bussman GMW-5 fuses.  They are sold at Newark for about $5 each.  Shipping is about $5, so if you do, buy a few of them.

[LANCECASPER]

Usually it's the potentiometer on the dimmer. It was on my Ovation. I replaced it and was good to go. Talk to Dan at LASAR.


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[AaronDC8402]

I spent A LOT of time troubleshooting the panel lights in our J. A common suggestion on this site is that the potentiometer is bad. I started with changing those, and they worked for about 1 flight, and quit again. Ultimately, we had an intermittent short in the wiring.

My non-A&P suggestion is to start with taking the potentiometer out of the circuit essentially straight wiring them through the breaker and the cap fuse. Use the breaker as a switch. If they work fine, maybe it's the potentiometer. If the breaker is popping or the fuse is popping, you know it's a wiring problem.