Dash lights don't work anymore?

I have 12 volts at the wires to the dimmer wheel. The only light that has worked this year is the aftermarket tach for about 10 seconds one night.

The lights all used to work.

COuld it be just one blown bulb causing this? I wouldn't think so since the tach lit up for a short time. If it were the ground for the tach it wouldn't read the RPMs would it?

It looks to me that a couple of the dash lights are gone, but they weren't there when the lights worked before.

Should I just keep trying to find a blown buble someplace? Is there a ground for the system that I need to find and check?

69 B body. Standard dash.

Try tightening the instrument cluster screws. That is where the dash gets it's ground in some cases. Are you getting voltage at the dash light fuse? The power comes from the dimmer to the fuse then to the lights.

Hmm, I thought it went from the fuse to the dimmer. I'll have to check that.

It has a new fuse in it since I couldn't tell about the old one so when I pulled it out for a closer look it broke.

No power at the fuse.

I checked on the backside where the spade connector would get juice at.

The place I have power at the dimmer has black and yellow wires. Where do those change into the orange wires?

This is in a 69 RR.

The lights have to be turned on to check fuse for dash lights, by the way.

Yep. No power.

Time for a new switch.

The light switch or the dimmer?

Is that where the power changes from the yellow/black wires to the orange?

The power at the dimmer wires changes on and off when the switch is changed. I made a jumper and still no lights when the dimmer is bypassed.

Check the headlight / high beam switch on the floor next. If it fails - no dash lights, been there.

Hmm.

Is there a wire on it that goes to the dash lights? I would guess there has to be some wite to turn on the high beam indicator, but does that go to the dash lights as well?

The high beams do work good.

Oh and thanks for the help, this has really been ticking me and helpers off. Doesn't make any sense that there is switched power at one point and no noticable breaks anywhere between.

Some electrical things on these cars will not make sense. As an example.....

I had a 1970 Barracuda. The previous owner had deleted the entire wiper system. I bought it in Oregon & had to drive it to get it home, so I found the linkage, arms & a wiper motor there.

The only problem was, I bought a 3-speed wiper motor but the car had a two speed wiper switch. I could not find the right switch before I left for home, but by accident I discovered that the wipers would cycle one time if I honked the horn.

I passed through a couple of rain storms on the way home, but I made it OK. Beep-beep!

Floor switch has absolutely nothing to do with the dash lights. The only thing they have in common is they are both fed by the headlight switch. But even at that they are fed by different parts of the headlight switch. If you don't believe me look at a wiring diagram.

You probably need a new headlight switch.

I'll take the dash switch out tommorrow and see what is going on.

If I need a new one, who sells a good piece? I noticed they go from 11 bucks to 25, maybe some other prices too. I don't like doing jobs twice on the ount of cheap crappy parts.

I changed the flasher from a nice Mexico unit to a USA one and now I have turn signals AND 4 way flashers. It even sounds better under there and only cost about 10 bucks.

So I would like to do the same on the switch if possible.

I went and got a headlight switch today.

It would appear to not be close, I actually think it is for a push/pull switch with the built in dimmer, I think it is for a Ford

There would be no way to even think of using it unless the wores were broken apart from the factory connector.

I do have 12 volts on two of those wires, one is black with a blue tracer I think, and the other has wo black wires that come into it. That is all on the cluster connector, about 5 wires total.

Could I check that circuit by just moving the spade connector on the back of the fuse panel to one that has juice? That might fry the circuit though.

Who sells the proper headlight switch? O was given a Standard part # DS-165, also has A2S on the box. YO doesn't list the switch.

From what I can tell, it should be a DS-166 in a Standard.

For some reason though, the DS-165 is listed for the 69 RR. ?????????????????

Lokks to be quite spendy at the places I have found it so far.

Do you have a seperate switch for dimming the dash lights that's not part of the headlight switch? If you do then it should have 12v going in and variable power coming out to the fuse as you move the wheel with the headlight switch on.

I thought that was it so I made a jumper and that didn't help.

I jumped the wrong terminals at the dimmer wheel. Plenty of dash lights now. Thanks to all that helped.

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I jumped the wrong terminals at the dimmer wheel. Plenty of dash lights now. Thanks to all that helped.

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I have the same issue, however the factory gauges don't work either (70 charger) what did you jump? My light switch will turn on the lights and the dimmer will turn on the dome

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I jumped the wrong terminals at the dimmer wheel. Plenty of dash lights now. Thanks to all that helped.

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So was the dimmer wheel switch defective? I'm having the same issue...It's driving me nuts!!!