Rally Dash lighting

[blownalcoholhemihead]

Hope you guys can help me out, been scratching my head for 5 hours now trying to figure this out. When turn on the head lights it blows the 3 amp ins. fuse and the 20 amp fuse next to it.
Wiper works, washer works, blinkers work, highbeam lght works, turn signals work, and clock works

The guage lights will not come on even for a split second, and the tach don't work.
The five prong plug the goes out to the gauges has a black wire with constant power and lights up one bulb on the speedo. I don't think this should be, this is after the fuses have blown.

Just to give you a run down, Dash has been restored, all new harnesses and wiring etc.

Interior lights all work including map light, but as soon as you hit the head lights the map light, cig lighter, and glove box light goes out. The orange wire that powers the bulbs in the dash cant get power to it.
I'm stumped!!!

 

[tpodwdog]

sounds like you have 2 hot wires crossing someplace. i havent tackled my dash yet so i dont know for sure. if youre blowing a fuse theres a ground touching the hot wire. youre gonna just have to find it and thats not an easy task. headlights should be on more than a 3 amp fuse but when the fuse blows, do the headlights stay on?

you may have a ground in the fusebox if youre blowing 2 fuses at once.....check that first. are you SUREEEEEE when you reinstalled the dash that everything went back to where its suopposed to go???? if not,,,,DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK....its easy to forget stuff if its been apart for too long

lemmee go have a ciggy and think about this............. ok,,,im back...ok,,,if you can...look at the back of the fuse box WITHOUT removing it. the back of my 70 rr fusebox is open and theres NOTHING preventing ANYTHING from touching the hots on the backs. see if a wire or somehingg foreign is touching . if not, REMOVE the fusebox and inspect for wires missing insulation

the glove box, the interior courtesy lights are on a "constant hot"...that means the key DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ON FOR THEM TO WORK..

i sure hope im helping you here...try those things good luck!

 

[70Fish]

I ran into the dash lights issue with my ol' 68 Dart, too, and it was a gear selector light wire in the steering column that was "pinched"; ie grounding against the column and after I taped up the exposed wire, it solved the problem.

The other fuse you're blowing is probably due to a similar issue in your rear tailight harness, I bet.

 

[tpodwdog]

my dash needs a good going over. im almost afraid to tackle the dash myself. i been hearing too many horror stories. my gauges seem to only work on half....half temp ....half oil pressure...but the amp gauge works fine,its not on the printed circuit board and thats my guess is to why it works. the gas gauge ,,,i dunno WHATS wrong with it. it works when it feels like it....and once again,,,when it does work it reads half when i just fill it to full.

other than the dash.....my car is done...all it needs is paint and ill have a brandy new 1970 roadrunner....WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !

 

[blownalcoholhemihead]

Alll Righty then! 22 hours of work, alot of f bombs, and a couple a few packs of cigarettes. If there's ever an exam on 69 b body wiring, I'll pass it with flying colors!!
The problem was a bad bulb socket on the brake light. Aint that a bitch! Thanks again for all your help.