More wiring and light issues

[Revelation]

My '65 is trying to teach me about wiring which long term is good but for now it's annoying. I know that I need to rewire the whole truck but with some health issues my self and one of my kid's are facing that's not in the budget.

right now as long as the battery is hooked up the dash, tail & license plate lights are on. Where should I start to look?


Thanks for the help

[LVPhotos]

Light switch. Maybe it's not pushed in all the way.

[cru_zn_29]

Go to the headlamp switch and unplug the wire harness from the switch. Then hookup the battery and see what happens.

[Revelation]

Originally Posted by cru_zn_29

Go to the headlamp switch and unplug the wire harness from the switch. Then hookup the battery and see what happens.

Tag and tails go off, dash stays on. headlight switch is about 9 months old if that matters at all. Hope it did not go bad after 9 months

[cru_zn_29]

With dash lights still on with harness is unplugged from headlamp switch you are getting feed back from some thing that has been added to the system. Has the truck had any new item added that uses voltage?

[Revelation]

no nothing I have taken away if anything.

[cru_zn_29]

How long has this problem been going on ? Did your light problem start after you were removing items?

[Revelation]

Before

this has been going on for a couple of months

[cru_zn_29]

The dash light wires are gray it appears that someone has added a hot wire to a gray wire some where behind the gauge cluster or the gray wire and a hot wire have rubbed together.

[Revelation]

I will do some searching tomorrow thanks for all the help

[Revelation]

Wednesday my fairly new post clamp on my negative battery cable breaks in two. A friend looked at it said was oxidation possibly from bad motor to frame and motor to body grounds. I picked some new ground cables up, i'll install them this week. I replaced the post clamp. these 3 sets of lights are not staying lit up with the battery connected now they only come on when I turn the headlights on like what is supposed to happen.

was it something this simple?

[Palf70Step]

Grounding (or proper lack there of) creates CRAZY things on these trucks. I would still trace out and make sure nothing is tied into you dash lights. I have not seen a grounding do that, but there is no telling.

[Revelation]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Grounding (or proper lack there of) creates CRAZY things on these trucks. I would still trace out and make sure nothing is tied into you dash lights. I have not seen a grounding do that, but there is no telling.

Yes i'm sure that is a good idea plus when it got dark I noticed the dash lights were there just faint, so faint it could not bee seen in the daylight but still there. Tails were completely out so that's good. My brother in law says himself and his buddy that's is good with that stuff is coming over with his multimeter but hasn't happened yet.

[blown240]

Do you by chance have an aftermarket stereo? They have a constant hot wire so that they don't loose their memory. They also have a wire thats hooked to the dash lights so that the radio will dim when the lights are turned on. I could see that if the grounds were not good that something strange could happen here.

When you did your grounds, did you get a solid battery to motor and motor to cab? Or battery to cab. Also check the ground on the stereo, if you have one.

[Revelation]

Originally Posted by blown240

Do you by chance have an aftermarket stereo? They have a constant hot wire so that they don't loose their memory. They also have a wire thats hooked to the dash lights so that the radio will dim when the lights are turned on. I could see that if the grounds were not good that something strange could happen here.

When you did your grounds, did you get a solid battery to motor and motor to cab? Or battery to cab. Also check the ground on the stereo, if you have one.

No radio at all

I haven't done the grounds to/from the motor yet maybe tomorrow. I don't have to be at work until noon but I'd like to sleep in so we will see. Those will all be replaced this week