350cuttyliteson

new member ,, hey there i have a 69 cutlass and my dash lights wont turn off only way to get it off is to remove the fuse im not sure but i dont know how to diagnos this it seems like it should be simple but i do know wiring is not that simple ... any help with this is greatly appreciated

joe_padavano

Welcome. Here's your very own thread rather than resurrecting one that's been dead for five years. When you say the dash lights won't turn off, are you talking about the illumination lights in the gauges? If so, these are powered by the headlight switch. They come on with the running lights (park and tail lights) but then the circuit runs through the rheostat in the headlight switch so you can dim them and then back to the fuse box to the 4A INST LPS fuse before feeding the lighting circuit. Is there anything aftermarket added to the wiring (stereo, aftermarket gauges, etc)? When you pull the fuse, are you pulling that 4A fuse or the 20A TAIL fuse?

350cuttyliteson

first of all thanks for taking me out of that dino page and making this new thread for a novice
yes the gas and speed gauges stay on even with car off i pul;led that 20a fuse and it went off along with access lights dome cigar light
i turned on and off the headlights and dash still wont dim or turn off
i looked under the dash and saw a orange wire connected to the light dimmer/headlights that went to fuse box but also saw same wire behind sterio that was disconnected i reconnected and got the dome lights to work but now dash lights wont go off

joe_padavano

OK, replace the 20A fuse and pull the 4A INST LPS fuse. Do the lights stay on or go off? And please answer my other questions about any non-stock equipment or wiring. The mind reading thing still isn't working.

350cuttyliteson

thank u , the lights stayed on when i removed the 4a fuse and yes i do have an after market radio hooked up
also it was actually the 25a fuse that i pulled to make the lights go off but like i said it makes the other lights like dome cigar acess lights not work

joe_padavano

If the lights stay on with the 4A fuse removed, you have a short to power. My guess is the aftermarket stereo wiring. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing how it was wired up. The dash illumination lights use the gray wire. Short of tracing every inch of that wire to find the problem, there is no easy way to do this.

350cuttyliteson

thank u very much i think i saw a gray wire in back wrapped togther with orange wire that was disconnected and when i connectedit made all lights work but i think there is a constant power to the dash wire . like you said i should check the radio wires to see if its connected somehow

350cuttyliteson

i figured it out thanks again ur help was on point

oldcutlass

So what was it? The gray wire connected to the orange, which is constant, not a keyed source?

350cuttyliteson

yes gray was connected to orange i disconnected and everythings fine thanks again