hooking up a switch

[alero_bmxer]

so me and my buddie hooked up a boost gauge in his ion redline and i need to know how to run a switch so the backlight on the gauge will turn on and off. its the kind of switch that lights up when turned on. we ran the power wire to the fuse box stud and grounded it properly but when i turned the switch to off the lights dimmed and the wires started to melt. what did i do wrong?

[Ttop191]

when you turned it to off? well i would have said short circuit if it was when on, because your didn't wire it with enough of a load to provide a lot of resistance, but with it off I'm really not sure...

[alero_bmxer]

Ya its all grounded to a beefy ground and all but when i flipped the switch to turn the light off on the gauge the cabin lights dimmed and then i saw smoke and melting wires so idk. i need some help quick tho cause we are tryin to get this done

[cherrington17]

you somehow managed to ground the switch.

PROBABLY wired the switch to ground. Sometimes those lighted switches say they need a ground (and they do for the light) but you gotta be careful that you don't connect it incorrectly.

could also be a bad switch. use a DMM with continuity check, to test to make sure the switch works.

[Gr1m]

umm u cant run one end of a switch from power and the other end to ground...when u flip that switch u will just be shorting out the connection = smoke and melting wire lol

[Gr1m]

http://giveupinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/bluescreen-fail-double-fail.jpg