Dash lights backwards-working suddenly...

-

DrillNFill

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
75
Reaction score
37
Location
Northeast PA
Hi, I've had a strange lighting problem since having my interior done a few weeks ago. 1970 Dart swinger Slant-6. I'm not a good mechanic when it comes to electrical stuff, so if we can shed any light on the issue I will pass it on to my trusted old-school mechanic!

Two weeks ago i had the seat covers replaced with Legendary original-style covers (which look awesome by the way). I had a local interior guy with decades of experience do this who has worked on my cars before. he was also supposed to install my new dash pad- i knew its a pain so i asked him to do it. He agreed initially but after he started removing parts of the dash, he decided against it because he "didnt want to mess anything up for me". I understood and was fine with it, everything worked fine driving it home- in the daytime.

On friday, i took the Dart to a cruise that lasted past sundown. when i switched on the headlights to go home, my dashboard turn signals and little red "hi-beam" indicator stayed on constant, the speedometer lights were dark, and my fuel gage and temp gauges on the left side imeadiately went dead. my lights and gauges normally work fine. Using the left and right turn signals, i noticed that when the outside light blinked ON, the dash light went OFF, and vice-versa. same thing with the high-beams. they seemed to do the opposite of normal, and everything on the outside worked as normal. Only the dash lights/ gauges were effected. When i shut the headlights off again, everything went back to normal (gauges worked again, turn signals/ beam indicator worked in the normal fashion).

what could have caused this all of a sudden? i do not know what the interior specialist did or didnt touch. could it be something was reinstalled backwards on the headlight switch? my dashboard type is shown below.

Anyone have any ideas? thanks in advance!
Dart dashboard .jpg
 
I don't know but check your grounds. There is one under your steering column that he may have removed that's on the steering column bracket. I've seen bad or no grounds make electrical go all wonky. I had a truck that did all kinds of **** until I found a broken battery to body ground wire.
 
This certainly sounds like a grounding problem. The cluster is poorly grounded by the mounting bolts to the dash frame, and the PC board is grounded to that by it's mounting screws. Find a common ground on the PC board and install a pigtail, then bolt the pigtail to either the column support or the dash frame
 
I don't know but check your grounds. There is one under your steering column that he may have removed that's on the steering column bracket. I've seen bad or no grounds make electrical go all wonky. I had a truck that did all kinds of **** until I found a broken battery to body ground wire.

This certainly sounds like a grounding problem. The cluster is poorly grounded by the mounting bolts to the dash frame, and the PC board is grounded to that by it's mounting screws. Find a common ground on the PC board and install a pigtail, then bolt the pigtail to either the column support or the dash frame
I know what you guys are saying, but I just thought it was weird that everything worked perfectly normal with the headlight switch shut off. Thats why my initial thought was something was reattached backwards with the switch. Would the dash gauges/ lights still work normal in the daytime with a grounding issue?

and thank you all i appreciate the help! Most everyone here has more experience with these older cars than I :)
 
-
Back
Top