The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Gauge lights

Some background. The truck is a 1950 1/2 ton with a 1954 235 motor. Years ago the electical was converted to 12 volt. the work was done on the cheap and very hodge podge. However, it mostly all works. Headlights, turn signals, after market blinkers, brake lights all work. Oh, dimmer switch also works. Even the dome light. What isn't working are the gauge indicator lamps. Both clusters are dark. I've pulled out the speedometer to have it replaced when I found the bulbs and couldn't get them to light up. I'm thinking the headlight switch might be bad. The switch and the wiring on it all look original - cloth wrapped wires and rust on the terminals. Any thoughts or suggestion on this? anyone seen this problem before? Maybe it just the bulbs. Now that I think of it, I haven't run a test to determine if there is power to the bulb sockets. May try that tomorrow.
Anyhow, any help will be appreciated.

Get a test light & start traceing. It very well could be the bulbs. If they didn't change them to 12 volt bulbs the 6 volt bulbs wouldn't last very long. They are fed off the light switch through a reostat to dim them. Sometimes the reostat is bad.

thanks, I'll test the bulbs and holders today. If that doesn't solve things, then I guess it means a new switch.

Did you test the bulbs with an ohm meter? Also, how do you know the dimmer works if none of the bulbs light up?

By dimmer switch I meant the high/low beam switch for the headlights. I'll check the bulbs and sockets tonight and let you all know what I find.

Thanks