I am working on the restoration of my 67 Cutlass and my question is - are the outside front turn signal lights suppose to be on when the headlights are on or only work when the turn signal is activated? please advise

 

The front signal/parking lights only come on steady when the headlight switch is pulled to the first click. When the headlight switch is on or selected in the off position they only light if the turn or 4ways are activated.

 

To clarify a little, there are TWO filaments in the 1157 bulbs, one for the turn signal circuit and one for the parking light circuit. The turn signal filaments are independent of the headlight switch and work when you turn the turn signals on. The park light filaments come on only when the headlight switch is in the park light position, as Eric noted. Front park lights were not required to stay on with the headlights until the 1968 model year.

This question comes up about once every six months, usually from people who were not alive when these cars were new.

 

thanks for the clarification

 

Once the safety people determined that you needed side marker lights, the parking lights also stayed on.

I remember doing the same thing on my '66, thinking something was wrong with the light switch.
My father promptly said it was 2 years too old for that.

 

that is where the confusion started - my 68 442 has them on and the 67 has them off so it got me thinking.

 

If you want them to be on the same as the 68 you can jumper the parking light switch terminals to also come on with the headlights.

 

Not really the right way to do this. The headlight circuit is completely separate from the park and tail light circuit and should stay that way. What you need to do is to swap out the headlight switch and harness connector for 1968-up parts.

 

I ran into this on my 67. Thing mustered 1 park light and 1 of 4 taillights upon initial power, and the light went out when the headlights, one T-3, mounted sideways, high beam only, came on. Took an hour or so of work to get everything on.