I have a 2000 Dodge Dakota and right now I’m having problems with it my gauge lights don’t come on so I can see my speed or anything at night and my fuse for the panel dim which is #5 (5A) keep tripping when I have my head lights on and my dimmer switch all the way up I changed the dimmer switch but it keeps tripping the fuse and it has already started to have the fuse smoke so I don’t ever see anything about this so I don’t know what could be wrong with it.
You have a short. The hard part is tracking down its location.
Let's look how this thing is wired.
The Power comes to the headlight switch from fuse 14 (15 amp).
When you turn the headlight switch to either Position 1 (parking lights) or Position 2 (headlights), Power is provided to the variable resistor (dimmer switch), and through the dimmer switch, returns to the fuse box and powers fuse 5 (5 amp).
Power exits fuse 5 and goes to the instrument illumination.
What isn't shown clearly in the wiring diagram is that the Power that exits fuse 5 also goes to your heater controls illumination and other lighted components on the dash (to illuminate them and dim them according to the dimmer switch position).
It looks like those parts of the circuit are alluded to by the arrows below fuse 5, both in the fuse box and at wiring joint connector 4.
So where to begin, right?
I think I'd begin by locating that wiring connector labeled Joint Connector 4.
Why? Because it's represented twice in the wiring diagram (but it's the same connector). It's shown first where the Orange wire (Power) is connected through it from fuse 5 to the cluster and possibly to the heater control illumination and maybe some other dash illumination.
It's also shown again at the bottom of the wiring diagram with 2 terminals in it that connects a Ground wire from the dash illumination to Ground point G200.
With a 22 year old vehicle I'd be wondering if there's corrosion in that connector that's causing a short to ground between the Orange (Power) terminal pins and the Black (Ground) terminal pins in the connector.
Also, I think that connector will be pretty easy to locate. There's only a few feet of wiring between the fuse box and the dash cluster.
So locate the Orange wire coming out of the fuse box and locate the Orange wire coming down from the dash cluster. They'll be connected at Joint Terminal 4 wiring connector.
Uncouple the connector and examine it for corrosion or heat damage (melted areas).
Even if you don't see any damage, with the connector uncoupled, turn on the headlights. If the fuse still fries you'll know that the problem isn't in the dash cluster or from the "cluster side" of the Joint Terminal 4 connector to the dash cluster. That will narrow down the location of the short considerably.
However, if the fuse doesn't fry, recouple Joint Terminal 4 and then remove the instrument cluster and see if the fuse fries.
If the fuse fries then it's the cluster and those Dodge clusters are known to be problematic. Not for shorting out but for broken solder joints and with this low amp circuit it's possible that a poor solder connection is heating up and causing a problem.
In your Dakota's case that isn't a lot of work. Maybe 10 minutes to pop out the cluster.
Chasing down shorts takes time, patience, and a methodical approach and nobody likes the task. Just watch a few youtubes on chasing down shorts, maybe learn how using a cheap test light or multimeter can be helpful in isolating areas of a wiring harness to chase down shorts to ground.
there's a short in your lighting wiring
