e body dash/parking light question

Almost complete on my 73 barracuda resto. I have headlights,and blinkers.

I do not have any working dash backlights. I also can not get any of the parking lights on. I check for power at the 5amp fuse on the fuse block when the lights are on and im getting no power at all to that circuit.

Any ideas? My horn is also not getting any power....

How's the tail fuse itself, or all of them for that matter?

tail fuse? All the fuses in the block are good. I checked both sides for power..

The horn works differently than the lights.

The horn is a switch but it doesn't have any positive current attached to it, it creates a ground that trips the horn relay on the fuse block. The horn relay sends voltage to the horn. If the horn isn't working it could be the Power to the relay, The relay, the horn switch or more commonly the steering column ground.

Under the steering column should be a black ground wire going from the stud that holds the steering column to the dash and the bracket that bolts to the steering column. Make sure it is there.

Also if the dash lights do not work check for a good dash ground. Since the E bodies had the overhead lights it is easy for the dash to be grounded but the light panel to not be grounded.

Do the gauges work? if so then the dash frame is grounding OK if not clean some paint off of the bolt and frame at one end of the dash frame under the kick panel to help the grounding.

As for the parking lights check the grounds in the trunk and behind the battery. There should be two ground wires going to the lights IIRC. Check for voltage at the fuse block on both sides of the fuse. I have seen many bad glass fuses that were not burned. Next check for voltage going in and out of the ignition & Turn signal switches under the steering column. Next check the wiring at the bulkhead.

Hope it helps.

As for the dash lights, could be a bad dimmer switch also. Does the dome light work the way it should ? Check the bottom lower left screw on the switch panel as this is the screw that grounds the pod to the dash frame. If that screw is missing, you wont have a ground, or dash lights.

I was having a problem with the front parking lights on my 72 Challenger. It was a grounding issue with the light housings. All I had to do was sand the screw holes/contact surface a little and viola... front parking lights!

EDIY - My front turn signals were working, just not the parking lights. Grounding fixed it.

Well great info guys unfortunately i still havent fixed any of it. I added the ground strap to the column. I also checked to see if the screw was in the pod and it was. I added an additional ground wire just to be safe.

My ground up front from the battery to the radiator support is good. I have only one ground in the trunk and it is also good.I cleaned and wd 40'ed the bulkhead connections and also the dash to rear light harness plug.

So The only lights i have working are the brake lights ,headlights,and turnsignals.

No side parking lights or rear running lights.
No dash lights either
I assembled the complete dash out of the car so im pretty sure all the connections are "conencted".

My fuel gauge,amp gauge,etc are working properly as well as the "brake light"

I had problems like this. As for your horn, you need to narrow down whether it's in the column or not, unplug the steering column conector and with a test light look for or if you know which one the horn is test it, if you find the right one the horn will blow when your test light lights up. If not while testing listen to see if you can hear the horn relay click. if no click try changing relay. if horn sounds or relay is clicking it's in the column and need to play with the button, sometimes the little wheel that makes contact.
As for your Dash lights, Double check bulbs, I've had all bad ones before. Play with dimmer back an forth a bunch of times, I've had a bunch of cars and all of them needed to be played with to get the dash lights to work.
Parking lights, make sure all wires are connected and not broken, I've had a broken wire going to a driver sidemarker light which gave me the same problem. , Poolman

Sounds like, for whatever reason, there is no power going to headlight switch for regular lighting. I believe there should be 2 12v hot wires going to switch. One heavy gauge for headlamps only, which you have, and a smaller gauge wire coming straight from fuse box. The fact that there is no power getting to the inst fuse when headlight switch is on, kindof seems to show that. Unless the 73 is different from the past.

Quote:

---

Sounds like, for whatever reason, there is no power going to headlight switch for regular lighting. I believe there should be 2 12v hot wires going to switch. One heavy gauge for headlamps only, which you have, and a smaller gauge wire coming straight from fuse box. The fact that there is no power getting to the inst fuse when headlight switch is on, kindof seems to show that. Unless the 73 is different from the past.

---

Would you know where the smaller wire would go on the fuse block? And where does the smaller wire come from? The switch itself?



The only spots open on my fuse block are the "batt" and "acc" on the bottom and then in the very top left looks to be a spot for a spade connector ,not positive though.