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Hi fellows - the night lights on the speedometer housing is very faint I barely see any lighting at all and 1 of my directional turn signal lights suddenly stopped working so I assumed a blown internal bulb. I checked the bulbs yesterday by placing them on the Oil housing unit and only 1 out of the 5 did not work however once I put the bulbs back in place the 1 directional signal that was working stopped working. I then spent close to 2 hours getting the lights to work and at one point I got both directional lights to work but they were faint and then suddenly died again. If the bulbs are good what could be the issue? Is this a case of one bad bulb causes all others to stop working OR could it be the bulb casing is not connecting properly to the housing? At this point I would like to get at least the directional signal working.
As always I appreciate the feedback. Thank you in advance.
First of all, what make, model,year......On some models it's easy to have a bad ground.Have you checked the ground strap? Where it screws in, it's easy to be screwed into plastic only and not the metal part of the housing.
Apologies - for some reason I always think the user name is accompanied by the vehicle info. It is a 70 Cutlass Supreme 350.
I have not checked the ground strap, to be honest not sure which one it is. See attached picture of the back of the housing sent along for extra help. Thank you.
When you remove the gauge cluster bezel, if memory serves me correctly there is a small ground strap that uses one of the speedometer screws.....that's the one that needs to be in contact with the metal portion of the dash....not the plastic.
Hi - when I removed the cluster bezel I did not see any small ground wire attached to any of the screws. What would be the color of a ground wire, is it gray? I tried tracing wires last night and found 1 lone gray wire which then connected to a red wire so it lost me there. Can I attach any wire to the screw to ground it?
Yesterday after another battle of changing bulbs and slowly adjusting the bulb housing (not sure what you call the plastic where the bulb is placed) I got signals to work, but then it stopped, then started again, then stopped. One signal was strong while the other weak, this on-off relationship has got to stop.
Also could it be that the bulb housing is bad?
Thanks for your help.
Hi - when I removed the cluster bezel I did not see any small ground wire attached to any of the screws. What would be the color of a ground wire, is it gray?
There isn't a ground "wire". There is a stamped sheet metal strap that is attached to the plastic dash. One mounting ear goes over the strap and the screw clamps them together. This is a 68 dash, but you get the idea.
Thank you Joe/Dave - my is a bit different but I think I finally understand what you guys mean. The Strap is this metal piece in between the 2 guages shown on the picture, correct? So if the strap is attached to metal than I am back to square one as to why the signal/night light don't work? Thanks again.
Thank you Joe/Dave - my is a bit different but I think I finally understand what you guys mean. The Strap is this metal piece in between the 2 guages shown on the picture, correct? So if the strap is attached to metal than I am back to square one as to why the signal/night light don't work? Thanks again.
Check continuity of that strap to ground to be sure.
Thank you all for the help. I was able to get the directional signals working but the night light still very faint however the other guage lights are strong so not sure only the speedometer night light is week. Thanks again for all the help, as you can tell I am new to the classic car family so lot's of questions may be coming your way.
March 6th, 2017, 07:45 AM
