no dash lights, no gas gauge, spooky......

[uncledon]

sooooo I have no lights on in my dash at all. my radio light(aftermarket radio) comes on when I turn it on....
but no in dash lights at all...., my headlight switch seems to work fine, I can turn my dome light on etc...
fuse looks good(so I think, not an expert)...
is there a common issue I need to look at? is it merely every bulb is blown? I would doubt that but possible I guess...
I am just dreading taking my dash apart, so when I do I want to be prepared and quickly assess the cituation...
I like driving my car to much and cant stand for it to be apart in my garage lol.
so any thoughts on what to check or do? would this have any effect on my gas gauge not working either? or totally separate....and hole other issue..??

thanks.

[4264door]

Could be the voltage limiter in the circuit board or the circuit board itself. I'm not too swift on chassis electricals, but that would be a definite possibility in my view.

[ws27]

Most likely your headlight switch is the culprit. There is a pot in the headlight switch that dims the dash lights. It always goes bad when sitting.

The other thing on the instrument cluster circuit board is the voltage limiter. That supplies the voltage to both the temp and gas gauges. So if your temp gauge works, then the limiter works.

I know Andy took his apart and cleaned it.

You can try to twist the headlight knob round and round and that might wear the contacts back into working.

[uncledon]

temp gauge works fine...
but good idea...I have an extra one of those laying around (resistor)
I thought maybe switch...
I need to take my dash cluster out anyways as I need to put in new radio, speakers etc....just do it all at once.
fun times.

[Hibbing_Coronet_500]

I'd agree on the switch. I'd cycle the knob left and right to see if dash lights flicker?
If you can get them to flicker doing that with the lights on?
The coil in the switch that controls dimness and brightness is crusty. Clean or replace? I'd replace

[Hibbing_Coronet_500]

Another note:
Been down this road myself. If you pull the cluster? Lower the steering shaft all the way to the last thread but no more. Under the plastic cover.
Be carefull pulling the plug off the mother board. Those 47 year old pins are weak.
The Orange wire is the lighting wire for clock, radio, dash lights, dome lights, it's controlled by the headlight switch dimmer coil.
Dash lights are fed from switch not voltage limiter.
Limiter is for gas and temp gauge.

Also try adding a tempory ground to the puter metal that the cluster body is made of and run to ground.

I ended up buying a new mother board from classic industries $150.00

[ws27]

temp gauge works fine...
but good idea...I have an extra one of those laying around (resistor)
I thought maybe switch...
I need to take my dash cluster out anyways as I need to put in new radio, speakers etc....just do it all at once.
fun times.

The headlight switch comes out with out taking the cluster out.

[tgranthamfd]

So, if either the gas gage or the temp gage works, then the limiter is good? is that correct? All of my dash lights are not working, as well. Gas and amp meter work, temp does not. and mine sat outside for a long time, not running. Headlight switch the likely culprit? Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread!

[Hibbing_Coronet_500]

I checked my books. The headlight switch powers the dash lighting circut via fuse panel. This fused circut feeds insturment lights, radio light, and dome light. If fuse is blown you will loose these lights.

Gauges are on a different circut all together. They get a 5 volt feed. The sending units control resistance to ground and the gauge responds to the changes in that resistance to ground.

[uncledon]

ok so my dome light works, my temp gauge works, my amp gauge works,
my fuel gage does not work
my dash lights do not work

im confused....... if headlight switch was bad then my dome light wouldn't work???