no dash lights or tail lights, 74 road runner

They worked fine in the fall when I parked the car, but they don't work now. I've tested all the fuses, and they are good. I have no power at the fuse box at cavity number 5. Using the factory wiring diagram, I jumped the circuits from the hot wire coming into the headlight switch connector and can get both the dash lights and the tail lights to work. When I jump the dash lights, cavity 5 then has 12 volts. I can run the hot wire to the headlight switch, turn the switch on, and get 12 volts coming out of the switch at the headlight lead, but not the dash or the tail lights. I've tried adjusting the dimmer switch. I bought a new headlight switch, and its doing the same thing. Is it a bad switch, even though its new? Am I missing something somewhere else? Suggestions?

And I found my own problem. The dash and tail lights are powered by another hot wire at the connector (the pink wire) which isn't getting any power at the fuse box. A jumper wire at the fuse box, and the dash lights came on....going to try to clean up the fuse connector....

And sure enough, that was the problem. The the corrosion on the fuse holder wasn't letting it make contact with the end of the fuse. So even though I was showing 12 volts on both sides of the fuse, the power wasn't making it to the wires connected to the back of the holder. Cleaned it up so it got good contact, and everything is working again. Crazy that it could happen like that. Oh well, at least maybe my posts to myself will help someone else haha.

I can personally guarantee it will do it again as soon as it sits for a couple weeks. I finally got pissed off and wired in a aftermarket fuse box and wired that in and no more issue'sthat box and it's connections are shot

Quote:

---

Oh well, at least maybe my posts to myself will help someone else haha.

---

I had a good chuckle over that! What worked for me was a ten dollar (on sale) mini dremel & kit at HF & cleaned all the fuse holders. That tool has virtually no torque & if you breathe on it it will stop but it works fantastic for getting in those tight spots & cleaning them up fast