I have a 72 cutlass i had to replace the dash in. i think i have a wire plugged in wrong some where but dont know where.
The light above my windshield wiper switch and the lights above my heater controls just stay on wont shut off with key or anything.
my dome light i cant get to work.
gauge lights, blinker lights and brights light all work and all exterior lights work.
I have a brand new ground going from block to firewall because i thought that was it.
Does any one know what i did wrong.

 

Do you have a Chassis Service Manual? I'd look at the wiring schematic and see where those wires should be connected. Sorry, that's the best help I can provide... maybe someone else has encountered this before. John

 

The dome light circuit is switched with ground so dome lights are hot all the time.

Could you have reversed the dome and dash lights? Just for grins, try turning on the lights and see if dome light works.

 

Also, you can pull fuses one at a time until you find which circuit the dash lights are wired to.

 

Thats a good idea.

The dome light i can't get to go on at all.

 

The fuse that shuts the light off are

clk ltr ctsy

?

 

Clock, Lighter, Courtesy.


Courtesy = dome lights!

 

Just a hunch, there are two places I can think of where the dash lights and courtesy circuits get close together. One is the clock and the other is an ash tray light and the cigar lighter.

 

i was looking at it most the day i cant see where i plugged it in wrong. i did notice that if i unplug the map light (the one with the switch above the radio, that is staying on also) they all go off. and there is suppose to be another single wire that goes to that map light that i can't find at all.

also. my cigerette lighter works.

 

I don't have a wiring diagram so I don't know what to think about the map light. You'll need to look at your wiring diagram and check that out.

You could pull the courtesy fuse and verify the lighter is hot from the right circuit.

If the lighter works and the dome light doesn't, the dome light problem could be a separate problem from the dash light problem. You may need to treat them as separate.

One more place I just thought of where the two circuits come close together is the headlight switch. Turning the **** to the right dims the dash lights and turning it all the way to the left turns on the dome light. So you could check that out.

 

The clock / dome hot is orange, the panel lamps hot is grey.

Look for places where those wires might be crossed.

- Eric

 

The panels lights that are gray are the ones that i cant figure out. they wont shut off and i cant find a switch or where i could of plugged them in wrong at. i have tried turning the light swith that dont help.
looking at a schematic the grey wires also go into the gauges. right now i dont have my gauges plugged in do they need to be plugged in to complete something for everything to work properly?

 

I don't think not having the gauges plugged in would cause the problem unless they were shorting against something, but I could be wrong. The gray wires going to the gauges are for the gauge lights.


I want to back up a bit.




OK, you changed the dash. Did everything work correctly before you started?

What things did you change out and what did you reuse?

What, if anything, is there that wasn't there before?

What, if anything, was there before and has been deleted?

 

I bought the car and the dash was missing but the wiring harness was there. i had a green dash that was complete with wiring harness and a black dash that was just dash and pad. i put the wire harness that was in the car in the black dash and used the green as a example piece. But now i dont have that green one to go by (gave it back to the person that owned it that lives in oregon).

 

The way I read that is this problem could have been there when you bought the car and something other than just a couple of wires crossed.

Have you tried unplugging the headlight switch yet?

 

So, do the gauge lights not work, or do you not have them connected?

Three places - Don't forget the headlight switch.

Oh, you didn't .

So, to review:

• Panel lights stay on all the time, but go off if you
  • unplug the map light or
  • remove the Courtesy fuse.
• Dome light never goes on.
• Cigarette lighter works fine (so at least you can have a smoke as you think about this).

What we know:

• There should be no direct connection between the panel lights and the Courtesy circuit.
• The power that is going to the panel lights is coming from the Courtesy circuit.
• At least one other Courtesy item (cigarette lighter) has power.
• You have never actually seen any of this working properly.

How it is supposed to work:

• Panel lamps get power from headlight switch (grey wire through rheostat), and complete their circuit to ground.
• Cigarette lighter gets power from Courtesy fuse and completes its circuit to ground.
• Dome light gets power from Courtesy fuse and completes its circuit through either a door jamb switch to ground or the headlight switch to ground.
• Map light gets power from Courtesy fuse and completes its circuit through either a door jamb switch to ground or the headlight switch to ground, or the map light switch to ground.

So, the question is, where is the grey wire crossed with the orange wire?

Keep in mind that the dome light problem MAY be entirely separate.

- Eric

 

Oh - I thought of another thing.

When you say that the panel lights were on, were they on full-brightness, or only half-brightness?

If the white wire from the dome circuit to the door jamb switches and the headlight switch (the ground wire) were crossed with the grey wire (and there was no power to the grey wire), both the dome lights and the panel lights would come on half-bright, as you would have a series circuit from the dome lights to the panel lights. It is possible that the much-brighter dome lights would be on at such a low level that you wouldn't notice in the daylight.

Have you tried removing the dome and map light bulbs to see whether you still have this problem?

Also, how many dome lights do you have? Just one in the roof? Or others in the sail panels and under the dash? Is this a convertible with the lights on either side of the rear seat?

- Eric

 

Eric, I think the way to fix this is we should meet over at Alek's garage, drink his beer and swap stories while he does the work. Every once and awhile we can point out what he's doing wrong.

 

Sounds good to me.

One of my favorite things to say is "Hey, you missed a spot!"

- Eric

 

Ok i think i narrowed it down a little bit today.
i have another harness and up behind the clock there is a 4 wire plug 2 whites one orange and one gray. so i unplugged it there and plugged the new harness in (it does the courtesy lights, the map light and the ashtray light) well i plugged it in and the only light that came on was the map light which would shut off if i shut the door and would go on and off with the switch.

But i couldn't get the other lights to go on. not by the switch, key on, key off, door open nothing. even if i wired a good ground. so i still have a problem somewhere.


the gauges were in and worked but i took the fuel gauge out because i was switching the wiper switch out when i noticed these lights stayed on then i took out the other two so i could look back there easier and didn't know if i needed to put the gauges back in to complete the circut.

 

ok i got the dome light to work it. the door switches also turn on and off the map light. is that correct? hooked the gauges back up to make sure what lights were working and what were not. i have no gauge lights or courtesy lights. the blinker lights work and the high beams light works.