No dash lights on 67 GTX

The dash lights on my 67 GTX haven't worked since I got the car last fall and the previous owner had no idea why they didn't work. I put it in storage for the winter right after I got it so I haven't pursued finding out what is wrong with them until now. I checked the fuse and it is good. The dome light works as do all of the exterior lights. Everything else electrical works as well. Besides the fuse, what else should I look for that may be the cause of this?

does the dome light come on when you twist the knob on the light switch and the doors closed?
if it does then the dash lights should come on at the same time.

if they don't then you know it is isolated to the dash light harness.

if your gauges work then it isn't ground.

then I would start with power to the light harness, I might even back feed through one of the sockets to test the bulbs.

Huh? I would go out there when it's dark, pull switch to headlights on, then rotate the dimmer knob back and forth a bunch and see if it attempts a flicker, whatever.

The dash light dimmer switch on the headlight switch is a varistor (SP?), a variable wire wound resistor. They can build up corrosion on the contacts that will make it not work, twist it back and forth several times to try and help clean it up

Agree with cab.The dome part has nothing to do with the dash lights.As said the switch builds up corrosion and sometimes the wire in it goes open.Twist it back and forth as said.Might start working.If not pull switch and you can jump from the power side to the das light part.Switchs were avaliable from NAPA.We got one for my kids 66 Charger a few years ago.Rocky

if the door is closed and you turn the knob all the way it will turn on the dash lights AND the dome lights.

That bypasses the rheostat portion of the switch.
it will show that the circuit to the light actually works and the spring portion of the switch is the problem.

in my case the spring was missing entirely nothing to clean up.

The switch will turn on the dome light with the doors closed. I rotated the knob back and forth vigorously but it didn't help, still no dash lights.

so now you know it isn't the switch.

do your gauges work?
while it is a seperate circuit for power, it grounds through the same screws.

if they don't work either, I would start with grounds.

if they do, then you have to check power to the circuit in the circuit board. see if the pin connector came loose or if it pulled out of the plug.

Are you sure the bulbs are good?

The rheostat part of the switch tends to corrode & deteriorate, and affect the dash lights. Full on will turn on the dome lamp, but dash lights won't come on except maybe in a sweet spot. Need to pull the switch, check the rheostat portion.
This assumes the circuit board & bulbs are good.

This was my thought as well.
They may be burnt out, or have poor (dirty) contacts.
Does everything else in the dash function properly?
Dome light works, how about the lights in the ashtray, radio,?

Interested in what the culprit is as I am having the same issue with my Dart as of tonight...

I checked some of the bulbs (not all of them) and they are O.K. I noticed yesterday that along with the instrument panel lights the radio light doesn't come on either.

Well that all leads to a bad headlight switch.

The rheostat is very sensitive, before I replaced mine there was one VERY small portion that would work near the brightest setting. A switch from Rock Auto was pretty cheap, less than 20 bucks as I recall.

If you pull the cluster its pretty easy to look at the PCB, and where power is feeding from, and then just test with a voltmeter.

Do your oil pressure light, fuel, and temp gauges work? What about the turn signal indicators? Radio?

It could be;

1) The Light Bulbs are All Bad
2) Power from the PCB to the lights bulbs is missing, either an open circuit between all of the bulb fixtures or no power to the PCB for those fixtures. I assume that power will be coming from the light switch/rheostat, I have a spare cluster I can check when I get home.

I would suspect the rheostat on the headlight switch, especially if the radio doesn't illuminate either.

Sounds like a bad headlight switch.

it is possible, but I would do some additional checking first.
all those lights and the radio go to an orange wire.

I can't seem to figure out where it is on the light switch.
but using the light switch to turn on the dome light should power the dash lights and radio light at the same time.

I don't think that output is split, but could be wrong.
if it is split, then it could be the light switch, but if it isn't then you know the switch is good, you just have to find the break in the line.

if you have a map light it would be easy to back feed with 12 volts and see if everything lights up.

my bet is if you follow the orange lines back someone cut it somewhere. or pulled the plug that feeds stuff.

I have no mopars that light the dash lights by simply turning the light switch counter-clock to light the dome. The parking or headlamp switch position has to be selected. OP says fuse is good, does that mean the fuse is making good contact with both clamps it's clipped into on fuse box? That fuse is dead by the way, until headlight switch is pulled to park or headlight choice.

I swear that is how it worked, but I had to go outside to check myself, and I have to admit I am wrong.

they are not connected, so ignore me on my information, but that isn't to say I wouldn't check the lines before I went and got a new switch.


actually I take that back, it must do something.
the original owner of my car cut the lights out of the rear panels, because the reostat portion of the light switch was gone.
he could only get dash lights by having the "dome lights" on too, so he cut the wires instead.

I didn't realize it till I patched them back in and found they were always on.
which is when I replaced the swtich.

so it is hard to tell, because the power is routed differently, but it definatly does turn the dash lights on.

the other way to know that is, once you rotate the knob all the way to turn on the dome light, the reostat is no longer engaged. it must give power too.

that doesn't mean the switch still can't be bad, but I would still be checking wiring first.

IIRC The dash lights do not normally come on with the switch turned all the way up. That bypasses the rheostat windings.

The oil pressure and water temp gauges aren't hooked up due to aftermarket gauges having been installed at some point in the car's past. The alternator gauge moves when something electrical is turned on like the headlights. Turn signals, radio, heater blower all work. The fuel gauge I was told by the previous owner doesn't work but if that could be a byproduct of the instrument lights not working then it may work if I can solve the light problem.

that's what I would do, jump fire to the specific female brass cavity in the black bakelite headlight switch "bulkhead" & work downstream for the open.

so amp gauge is its own wiring.

your dash circit board may just not have power to it at all.
or totally bad grounds on it.

fuel and temp do go through the VR in the dash, and that is a seperate power source. but if the sending units aren't hooked up, you can't nail down if it is power or ground.

backfeeding the lights will tell if it is ground or not.

440mopar, I was looking up dash light problem threads and came across yours. Just wondered if you ever found out what the problem was as I am experiencing a similar problem.

No, I didn't. I checked everything with the exception of pulling the cluster out. Switch works, fuse is good, all bulbs are good, manually grounded the gauge cluster and switch. Nothing. I did notice that the light on the gear indicator on the column doesn't work either. Since it and the radio light don't work and they are not actually part of the gauge cluster lighting I don't know what else to look for.

Check the voltage limiter on the back of the instrument cluster. IIRC, the lights won't work if it is bad.

I'm not familiar with that part. Do you have a pic of what it looks like?

It is the rectangular metal cannister next to the thing that looks like a condenser in the photo. It has three prongs and plugs into the circuit board.

Thanks for the pic. I will take a look at it this weekend. I'm not an electrical guru so when I pull it off, how do I go about testing it?

if all components check good, and everything is properly grounded, the only thing it can be is the circuit is NOT getting power. this means you need to check the wiring closely. even if nothing apparent jumps out [like a blown fuse, or broken wire], you need to confirm if power [12v] is reaching the switch, then leaving the switch to the component[s]. after that, you need to confirm the component[s] is[are] receiving 12v. you may need to run a jumper wire or two, to confirm this. these cars have a very basic system, but electrical issues can be VERY frustrating to solve at times. i REALLY enjoy fixing hack "fixes". []