I have been chasing the electrical demons on my 65 442 and have most of the dash wiring figured out. But what is really confusing me is that I get no power to the fuses or terminals on the right side. This all started just trying to figure out why my dash lights and courtesy lights didn't work. I bought the car this way and it has been modified to have HEI ignition which is the only wiring I don't see in the wiring diagram. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate the help. Thanks

 

Without having a service manual to look at I would guess the ignition switch is bad. Are all the fuses suppose to have power with the key on? Check all the fusible links. Check for corrosion or loose terminals at the bulkhead connector.

 

Never mind, after reading your question again I see that you also have no courtesy lights. That would rule out the ignition switch. A good wiring diagram would be helpful, look to see what supplies power to whatever doesn't work and start working your way back.

 

There may be more than one issue here. The RH side of the panel is fed from the ignition switch. The inst panel lights are fed from the headlight switch. The courtesy lights are fed separately as well. I don't believe they are related at all.

 

I separated the fuse panel and cleaned the back of fuse box. There was some rust and corrosion. It works. Now I have power to grey dash wires but no lights. I followed all orange wires and they have power. All grey wires have power. Yellow has power. The grey wire to back of speedo cluster has power but no lights. Could this be my headlight switch????? I'm making some progress.

 

I separated the fuse panel and cleaned the back of fuse box. There was some rust and corrosion. It works.
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The '66 I worked on had one wire worn thru to another in the back of the fuse panel. Required mm by mm inspection of all wires in that block.


Now I have power to grey dash wires but no lights. The grey wire to back of speedo cluster has power but no lights. Could this be my headlight switch????? I making some progress
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Gray dash wire is for illumination of gages and such, fed thru the rheostat [dimmer] in headlight switch, I believe. Is the dimmer set to bright, full 12V at the gray wire? If you have volts to the lamp, and no light, there's only 2 causes left- BOB [Burned Out Bulb(s)] or fail of the Ground return path. There are straps to ground the instrument clusters to the dash metal.


I followed all orange wires and they have power.
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Courtesy lights and the like, right?

Get yourself the wiring diagram.

 

Thanks Octania, I didn't have any ground straps on my cluster when I removed the dash. I will run one when I install. Where is the correct location for strap. All bulbs new. I had headlight switch in my hand turning the **** with no lights at any position of the ****. Sounds like a ground issue.

 

Check ALL Your grounds - they can cause more problems than you can find!
Had a 69 442 with starting problems - turns out the negative cable was corroded because the 2 ground straps from firewall to valve covers were disconnected and hidden by previous owner!

 

Thanks for the help!!!!! I really appreciate it. I got all the dash working without hacking the original wires. Replaced headlight switch and now the only lights that don't work are the 2 behind the speedo numbers. It was worth the 5 hours of chasing and fixing the problems instead of new harness. Now I can deal with under the hood wiring.

 

+1 on grounds, I just hate chasing wires. Really time consuming but what else can you do unless you want to pay a shop to play with your car. Should hopefully be a easy fix once you find the scource.