I am still workin on the gauge system blowing fuses but I have another problem, no head lights. The parknig lights ang marker lights come on but not the headlights and the green wire that powers the headlights and tail lights has constant power to the rear harness, I getting very frustrated!

 

Year?

Model?

Huh?

- Eric

 

68 442

 

Thanks. I had to be sure of why I was confused.

1. The green wire does not power the headlights and taillights.
   The green wire is power out of the headlight switch dimmer to the panel lamps fuse, and thence to the panel lamps.
2. "Has constant power to the rear harness."
   What does this mean?

If you have no headlights, but you do have tail and parking lights...

• Do you have panel lights?
• Is the heavy red wire from the power stud on the horn relay connected?
• Is the blue wire to the high beam dimmer switch connected?
• Is the high beam dimmer switch broken?
• Are the light green and brown wires form the high beam dimmer switch connected?
• Is the internal circuit breaker inside the headlight switch broken?

- Eric

 

no panel lights blows fuse when I turn on the key
yes red wire is connected
Blue wire not conected as I have not hooked up the dimmer switch
how do I check the circuit

 

I interpret this to mean:

"My panel lights don't work at all.
My car blows the "gauges" fuse when I turn the ignition to the ON position.
Yes, the red wire to the headlight switch is connected to the horn relay terminal.
The blue wire from the headlight switch to the highbeam switch is not connected, as I have not yet hooked up the dimmer switch."

• "Gauges" fuse blowing:
  I'm not working on that one right now.
  Clearly you have a short somewhere in that circuit. It could be anywhere.
  You need to examine the gauges and idiot lights, and all of the wires associated with them, including the cluster printed circuit, for shorts, most likely to ground.
  I would disconnect everything, then reconnect each circuit one at a time and check for a short.
• Panel lights not working:
  Since you have taillights, you have power for the panel lights into the headlight switch.
  Check to see whether you have power at the green wire from the headlight switch with the taillights on.
  If you do, then check the condition of the INST LPS fuse, and the grey wire that powers the panel lamps.
  If you do not have power at the green wire, then check the condition of your panel lamp dimmer rheostat. Sometimes these can be cleaned, but sometimes it's time for a new headlight switch.
• Since your highbeam switch is disconnected, it is really no mystery that your headlights don't work, as the highbeam switch powers the headlights.
  Hello?
  Connect the highbeam switch and see if that works a bit better.
• If you want to get clear answers to your questions, consider asking clear questions.
  You will notice that only one person has answered you.
  One reason is probably because your responses are so hard to read.
  I took the time to figure out what (I think) you mean this time, but it tries my patience.
  Punctuation would be helpful, and considerate of the people who are going out of their way to help you.

- Eric

 

Thank you very much for your time and assistance. If I have been unclear with my questions or responses I am very sorry I did not mean to do so. With your help I have gotten the headlight working, THANKS. Taillights are not working and I have determined it is the pink wire in the gauge that is causing the fuse to blow but that is as far as I have been able to get with that problem. Again thank you for your continued assistance I am very sorry that I have not been as clear as I needed, I will try to be more detailed in the future. I am new to this sort of forum.

 

It's okay. It's just that it can be very difficult to understand someone when all you've got is a few lines of text, unless they're very clear. Little vagaries and omissions can result in wrong answers.

So, pink wire. Good.
That's the power wire for all of the gauges and indicators.

The first step is to unplug the harness from the cluster (if you haven't already), and see if it still does it.
If it still blows fuses, then the short is in the wire itself, probably where it's rubbing against metal, possibly inside the harness, if wires have been overheated in the past (usually from a faulty orange cigarette lighter wire). It is possible to unwrap the harness and follow the wire, then re-wrap it, but you'd have to be pretty obsessive.
Personally, if the problem is in the wire, I'd just run another wire parallel to it and be done with it.
Also, note that the only other connection of this wire is to the orange wire of the transmission kickdown switch (the wire is probably taped up somewhere even if your car isn't a TH400), so the short can be anywhere along there, or in the switch itself.

If it doesn't blow the fuse with the cluster unplugged, then the problem is probably in the cluster itself.
The pink wire connects to the TEMP, OIL, ALT, and BRAKE lights, and to the fuel gauge, so the short would have to be on the hot side of one of these, or the printed circuit.
You may have to remove the cluster and disassemble it to fully test it.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

- Eric

 

Glad you are getting the problem fixed. Troubleshooting online is very difficult so we need as much carefully worded detail you can provide. Let us know if you get stumped again.

 

OK thank you both, Eric I have unpluged the harnes from that gauge and when it is unpluged it does not blow the fuse. The way I determined it was the pink wire was to remove each wire from the clip the conects to the back of the gauge and conect each wire to its peg on the back of the insterment one by one until one blew the fuse. I had the gauges rebuilt by auto instrerments last winter so I hope the problem is not with the insterment How would you recomend testing to be sure it is the wire. Thank you again for your continued assistance

 

BZZZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!!!!!

Somebody messed with it, so there's your problem!



You just did that. It's not the wire. It doesn't do it when the wire is not connected to the cluster.

The cluster has to come out so you can find the short.
It's something the rebuilder did.

- Eric

 

Well that really STINKS I have not removed one of the gauges with the dash in the car. Is it possable or do I have to pull the dash again? When I reinstalled the rebuilt gauges the tach and clock had a ground wire conected to those two gauges but the temp cluster did not. Did I miss a ground or does that cluster not have one. Could that cause this?

 

The problem here appears to be "too much ground," rather than to little - something hot is shorted to ground that shouldn't be.

I have no experience with the '68 A-body dash, so I'm afraid I can't help you as far as actual disassembly of the cluster, but from what you describe, it looks like that's where your problem is - probably just a skinned wire or pinched bit of the printed circuit.

One of the others will be able to give you advice on the easiest way to get it apart.

- Eric

 

Well I got the gauge out and sent it back as it was under warenty, I will let everyone know what the problem was when I get it back. With your help I have been able to get the lights fixed, problem was the taillights were not gorunding to the housing as they should. I fixed that and all the lights are now working!

 

As I said in the PM, great to hear, Chris.

You're almost done.

- Eric

 

Sorry this has taken so long but I but I got a call today from the company that worked on the gauge and surprise surprise it was grounding out inside gauge. I should have it back and in the in the car this weekend. The guy who built my motor is coming over Sunday and the plan is to fire it up for the first time, I cant wait to here it!

 

Great! Looking forward to hearing how it runs.

- Eric