The rear pillar lights have no power, also the door lights.
I would have thought they would be on the same circuit
as the console and map light which work.

If the ciruits are separate how are the lights which are not working activated?

 

The rear lights as well as the other courtesy lights are activated by the front and rear door switches, those switches supply the ground side of the circuit. If the map light is working as well as the cigarette lighter/s then power is not your issue.

 

I should have said my car is a two door.
The door switches are working fine.
There must be a relay or something which boosts
current to the interior lights. Since the rear pillar lights
are not working and the door lights there must be a
common component which has failed. The console
and map lights must be on a separate circuit.
My fix for this issue will be to rewire the lights through a
relay triggered by the drivers side door switch.
Thanks for the reply

 

All of the lights should have 12v power all the time. the ground circuit is the one that is switched.
you can check each light for 12v power. if they have power then the ground circuit is faulty.
here is the wiring diagram out of the 65 chassis service manual.

 

Check the connector in the trunk for power on the orange wire.

 

I’ve been playing with these 65-66 big cars for a few decades. There are a bunch of potential points of failure

1) the door switches (more specifically, their wires behind the kick panels) can ground and short things. The wires physically move every time the driver and/or passenger door is opened/closed, so eventually the insulation can wear off and that part of the system can pop fuses.

2) the light switch in the dash is high amperage, so the plastic shell can melt from corrosion/heat over the decades. Frankly I’d start with the switch as culprit. The rheostat on the light switch controls voltage to the rear courtesy lights - if it’s shorted, dirty or broken, well, that’s an issue.

3) the wires from the switch to the lights can be broken, either in the ribbon cable under the driver’s seat, or past the “T” beneath the rear passenger seat which converts the ribbon cable to (usually) orange/black wires feeding the courtesy lights.

Troubleshooting, it should be pretty easy to pull the door switches and look for burnt/gone/missing insulation or a broken wire. If that doesn’t help, I’d turn to the light switch. These get gummed up, corroded and hot and frequently melt insulation. And the brass contacts can get dirty/gummed up so they run hot. Which can trip the circuit breaker if the heat causes the switch to pull too many amps… Assuming your plastics at the switch aren’t melted and the brass contacts are clean (dust/corrosion free), then the next place to look is a broken wire between the light switch and rear courtesy lights. Along the way, you may want to check the actual light fixtures with a 12V battery to see that if they have 12v, they light up…

What little I know.
Cheers
Chris

 

2) the light switch in the dash is high amperage, so the plastic shell can melt from corrosion/heat over the decades. Frankly I’d start with the switch as culprit. The rheostat on the light switch controls voltage to the rear courtesy lights - if it’s shorted, dirty or broken, well, that’s an issue.

Im leaning towards this being the problem as both wires in the rear light sockets have a positive 12v.
The rear lights are not working because there is no earth.

Seems I need to remove the door trims to check the bulbs in the door lights.
I ll get the rear lights going first perhaps the door lights have the same problem.