Found on 1969 Cutlass convertible. This was screwed into the ground plate on the back of the dash that connects to the dash guage pods. It was on the mounting screw at upper left corner of the radio faceplate (as seen while sitting in the car). The wiring is grey and leads to a multi- connector of other grey wires. Grey wires are usually dash instrument lamps, but this thing is just a bullet shaped cylinder with no lamp.

I will reinstall as I found it, but curious as to what it is and what it does. I did not see anything in the assembly manual. Any ideas?

 

My guess would be a capacitor to filter out noise for something, not sure what though.

 

Gray wires are usually lights, is there a bulb in it? A window for light to shine. Looks kinda like an ash tray light.

 

Yes, looks like a light socket. Is there a slit in the end for the light to come out of?

The crimped end should pull out of the bullet-shaped receptacle so that you can change the bulb.

- Eric

 

Thanks for the comments. This is indeed the light for the ashtray. It was installed in the wrong place originally when I took it out. When screwed into the proper lower left part of the radio faceplate, a very small pinhole (did not notice that before) in the assembly aligns with a small hole in the ashtray. There is a small lamp inside the metal tube that shines through the pinhole.