Originally Posted by dieseldude49

so i was given a 1982 mercedes 300d turbodiesel that had been sitting for 11 years. after just replacing the vacuum hoses and bleeding the brakes, it was road worthy once again. i quickly realized, as i started driving home in the dark, that the instrument lights and climate control lights did not illuminate when the lights were turned on. so i went home and looked up a few things about it, went outside, removed the rheostat, bypassed it, and all was well. all the lights lit up and it lasted about 2 months. during that time it worked well and i had no problems. i then noticed some change in my gearshift that looked like it had come out of a sewer. i took the wood grain paneling off and unscrewed the gearshift and removed the change and carefully reassembled it. soon after (not sure how soon but i wasnt sure if the gear shift was imperative to this issue) all the inside illuminated lights (instrument and climate) ceased to work. i tried cleaning the connectors, tried bypassing it with a different wire, (i got shocked by this, and the lights flashed on a few times, but it felt like there was a short in the 2 metal pins if thats even possible, and i couldnt get them to stay on) and even put the rheostat back on once with and once without the wire attached. nothing. i've gotten a little clip on led light that's magnetic and holds to the ignition tumbler and shines right on the speedo and other instruments, but im tired of it. is there any other thing that i could fix to get this to work right? money is kind of an object, seeing as i dont have much. is there a fuse or something? please help. thanks.

82 300dt 355,000 miles (Gold)