NO DASH LIGHTS

HI ALL,

I am several weeks new to this site and I have got to say, IF YOU OWN A MOPAR YOU HAVE TO JOIN THIS SITE. So my awesome 1970 Roadrunner factory 383, 4 speed console car has mostly all original parts. Dash and electrical are original and odometer reads 21,300, but can not be confirmed. So car drives and runs great. First time ever since owning this car for 15 months noticed that 0 dash lights work. I am nearly positive when I turned the headlights on months ago while it was in storage the dash lights came on extremely dim, but worked. Anyhow there are no dash lights and the clock seems to not work but all other gauges and all other lights (exterior) work perfectly. So where do I start?

Try turning the headlight switch. Mine has a dead spot that makes the dash lights go out.

And check the fuses! Car also has enough time on it, years, might be looking at some bad grounds.

miller said:

And check the fuses! Car also has enough time on it, years, might be looking at some bad grounds.

Click to expand...

maybe time for new headlight switch.

My dashboard lights did not work as the dimmer was broken.
There is a way to install a by-pass on the socket to make them work, but only at maximum brightness. (do a search on the forum)
My bet is that is what is causing it, you could try turn the dimmer on max what could make em work again as well.
Classic Industries sells remanufactured dimmers but are expensive, to me not worth the money for it's purpose.

I assume you got a rally dash, the clock is a known pain in the *** to get it to work.
As i f*cked up my tachometer during restoration i just replaced the whole unit and works like a champ.
(also expensive though but worth it to me)

Thanks for suggestions.

Well, had a little free time to check some stuff out in the car. All the fuses in the fuse panel are fine. BUT, the fuse for the dash lights has no power at all going to the fuse panel. Does anyone know on a 1970 b body with rally gauge cluster, Do I have to unbolt the steering wheel assembly shaft and drop that down in order to pull the gauge cluster forward/partially out?

If you don't have at fuse box the problem is before gauges, IMO. I would think fuses are before cluster?

Thanks I am not sure. Well the good thing over all is I recently purchased all wire harnesses from YEARONE with a 30 percent off everything PROMO CODE. So I got the front light wire harness, rear light wire harness, engine wire harness, and complete dashboard wire harness that includes all wiring including the fuse box attached. I bought all this because a few weeks ago I had no power at all at the ignition and pulled of the firewall plugs in the engine bay for first time after reading that suggestion from a MOPAR electrician guy on this site. That guy told me the center wire harness has a blue in color wire coming from the starter relay which powers the ignition. I pulled that center plug assembly out and found out someone drilled a hole right through it all. Throughout the car I can see all wiring is factory original but under the hood some wiring is like falling apart from being nearly 50 years old. So in a scary way (scary cause seems like a big job) I am going to take the entire dash board out starting in like October to rewire the entire car with factory reproduction wiring. Feel it would be best to replace it all because 2 of the wiring harnesses have damage to the end plugs that go into the firewall, and the main plug on the firewall that is factory connected to the dashboard wire harness is damaged by someone drilling through it in the past. Never planned on doing it but found a handful of wires throughout the car that are spliced into so better to just replace it all considering I got the entire car wire harnesses for 600 with the promo code.

Play around with the thumb wheel some more. Spray it with contact cleaner and search for a sweet spot.

Okay. It's a 70 model? Not real up on them. Do you have a wiring diagram? Yes, good game plan, to replace the harnesses, especially if they've been messed with.

All good suggestions from the guys! Don't know if it helps, but no power to the fuse? Assuming you have power to the ignition switch, right? Usually, there's a power feed from the ignition switch...to the light switch...to the fuse...then to the panel light lead.
Not sure where the light dimmer wires in, if it's separate, but diagram will show.
Just have to back track, until you find the problem.
Power supply should be coming from the light switch, for starters.