The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay no gauge lights

I've got everything working on my 54 (12v) except the gauge lights. It is wired as instructed in harness directions from the headlamp switch, on the headlamp post, checked the headlamp switch fuse, have replaced all bulbs with 12v equivalents, but none of them work except the bright headlight indicator and the dome light which are on their own wires. Would one bad bulb or connection keep them all from working, like Christmas lights? Can I hook it through a different post on the headlamp switch? Do they need a resistor?

There is a resistor reostat built into the headlight switch. As you turn the knob the lights get brighter/dimmer. Make sure you have it hooked to the correct term. on the switch. They generally use a grey wire & anyone can work that has a good bulb & is hooked up correctly. It's possible the resister in the switch is burned out.

No they are in parallel. Follow the system backwads from the bulbs with a light type tester while switch is on til you find hot. That will narrow it down. There is a real good chance its the ground for the lamps. DO they have their own ground wire or rely on screwing the dash together? Attach a ground to dash plate or bulb base to test if it's the ground. Use spare wires to make a bypass, hot and ground to a bulb. Stuff like that is how you trouble shoot. Eliminate all the harness and connectors by bypassing to see if you can get them to light first. It's a bad ground or you goofed. Been there done that with an American Autowire Harness.

If the instrument cruster is removed this will remove the ground return for the bulbs. Connect a ground lead back to ground until you reinstall the cluster with screws. Had the same problem when working in mine.

Hi, Hawkguy, the above posts have good advise. I installed a plastic reproduction harness in my 49 and had the same problems. It turned out to be the cheap plastic bulb holders, so I cut the original bulb holders off of the old wiring and connected to the new wiring. The old bulb holders are also a tighter fit in the instruments.

Yes, good point Hippy I DID NOT use the plastic either in my rewire of TF truck. I also had a problem with the Dome light, had the headlight switch hanging down while working.....it needed to be grounded. SO even though I fixed the problem, it would not light until I grounded the switch. (it is grounded when installed to dash). So like Hank says attach wire to dash plates and to the switch body and ground them while trouble shooting if they are hanging loose and be sure the problem is not ground.