I need help from smarter people than I ...the instrument panel lights on my 68 won't go out. There's no impact on turn signals, bright indicator, or gauges. To date, I've replaced the headlight switch with one from Borg warner acquired from an auto parts store.

Here's the chronology. After the car had sat for a while, the battery was dead and had to be charged before starting. When it started, the instrument panel lights were off ( as they should have been). The occassion came to turn on the headlights, and the panel lights came on (as they should have). Upon stopping the car, and turning off the headlight switch, the panel lights would not go out.

I've removed the dash cluster and run through it with a multimeter, and find continuity for the instrument lights only where it belongs. I've checked the plug that goes to the head light switch, and the blue/red wire connection is always hot ... is that as it should be?

I've been pouring over Hammar's schematics to figure out what's going on ... and I could really use some help.

 

Sounds like its a problem with the Headlight switch!Recheck it to see if all the contact points are disconnecting when you turn it off,basically its continuing to get power when its not supposed to so it has to be somewhere in that wiring or connection![sm=signs003.gif]I am going to go look at my book to see if the blue/red wire is supposed to be constantly hot.I will get right back to you!

 

OK Just looked at my book and it really doesn't tell me m uch as far as this particular problem.I would go to the tech section and ask as you will probably get the answer there!Those guys are really good![8D]

 

I have been looking for a good print so I could help you out but can't find one. I do know this The wire feeding power to the instrument light shoudl not have power all the time. It comes from the light switch and specifically from the dimmer. It sounds like your dimmer is turned all the way counter clockwise with the lights on. If the light switch is off there should be not power going to the instrument cluster ever. The dimmer turned fully ccw with the light switch off should only turn on the inside lights. It is sounding like a bad light switch to me.

 

It may be possible that the parts store gave you a bad switch. The circuit is pretty simple. you have a feed from a fuse to the rheostat thatprovides a volatge outputwhen the swich contacts are pulled to the 1 st position. To isolate the problem, unhook the plug from the switch and verify the lights go out. ( if not, you have a miss-wire to deal with somewear in the wiring)

With your DVM, determine that the fuse is the only source of voltage to the inst pnl lights at the sw plug. If not, you need to isolate why. Then check continuityfrom the inst pnl lights to the switch output wire. if these are good, it's a bad switch. Go to the FAQ section and download the WDM for your car, it's easier to follow.

 

I'm having the opposite problem with our '65. The instrument lights dont work at all. I have jumpered them and I do know that they work, just not with the headlight switch.

 

Just to complete the thread ... I traced the problem back to a bad splice the previous owner made behind the fuse box.A couple of filaments of the spliced wire were laying across the connector for the instrument panel fuse, causing power to back feed to the lights. To try and help other folks ... the 2.5 small fuse is purely for the instrument panel lights. Power goes to the headlight switch through the brown/orange wire to feed the switch. When the headlights are on, power is fed to the blue/red wire which then goes through the fuse in the fuse box, and returns to the panel lights. As a consequence, the 2.5 amp fuse is really an inline fuse for those lights that's simply been located at the fuse box.

Boy ...finding this was a character building experience ...

Thanks for all the input guys .. it all helped

 

Glad you found it and thanks for the update.