dash electrical

[vsj100]

1968 Dodge Coronet. Mine has a sweep style speedo. The dash lights do not work. If it is a faulty ground please let me know where to attach the ground. The oil pressure light works. Gas gauge and temp gauge do not work. The ammeter has a fault so it is bypassed. Thanks for your help! Happy New Year!

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Pretty sure the lights are a separate issue from the gauges not working. The gauges not working could be a number of things - bad gauge, bad sending unit, bad wire, bad circuit board, bad voltage limiter in the dash, bad ground. Time to get a voltage tester and start checking. Quick test on the gauges is to ground the wire on the sending unit, only for a few seconds though, with the key on and see if the needle moves on the gauge. This must only be for a few seconds though.
Lights could be fuse, bad ground, or the dimmer switch is a likely culprit as well.

 

[pnora]

Just add a ground from the cluster housing to the dash frame or cowl area. Oil light is grounded from the oil sender so it does not rely on the cluster to be grounded. If your turn signal indicators work the cluster is most likely grounded correctly.

 

[matthon]

Do all those things, and twist the headlight switch back and forth a few hundred times, sometimes an old switch needs an internal "cleaning."
On my a-body, the screws that hold the cluster to the dash are the ground, so I built a small cluster harness to ground everything to a stud where the dash mounts to the car.