Lost the lighting on my dash

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Wow, awesome replies guys. Thanks heaps.

Let me start my novel... Hehehe

The pics I sent were from the time I took the dash out for some restoration. During this period I replaced all bulbs for LEDs so it's all new. Needless to say, everything worked.

Today I checked the printed circuit for continuity from the pin to the two bulb sockets and it's all working fine, so the pin is not the problem. I know these can be an issue but mine are still very well stuck to the circuit.

I then proceeded to check for voltage in the brown wire that goes into the pin in question - with the light switch on and set to full brightness. The result was a big fat nothing.

However, when testing the brown wire on the other circuit (where the lights work) under the same circumstances the test light shows voltage as you would expect. So this also excludes the switch as the problem.

The only thing left is the wire itself... I checked the brown wire a bit further down from the connector and also got nothing. So this excludes the connector as the problem.

The only thing left now is the wire from the switch to the connector, about 500mm of 42-year-old insulated cable that's going to be a nightmare to troubleshoot.

So here is my question. By the looks of it, one single brown wire comes off the headlight switch and at some point gets split into two, which then feed the two circuits. So where exactly does the split happen?

I'm betting the problem will be there because I know there is voltage going through to the other circuit and as far as I can think I have excluded everything else.

Please let me know if my reasoning is correct, as I said I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to electrics.

Cheers!
 
d55dave said:
Temporary ground - perhaps from one of those screws that hold the center clock or tach in your dash - in you pic it looks to me like good place, and run it to any good chassis ground, or right to the battery negative terminal.

I am headed down under on sunday, back to work in PNG via Brisbane! Of course no where near your neck of the woods in Western Aus.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hey, if you wanna stop by and help fix my Dart I'll chill a block of stubbies and through some snags on the barbie!
 
Kikowillers said:
Wow, awesome replies guys. Thanks heaps.

Let me start my novel... Hehehe

The pics I sent were from the time I took the dash out for some restoration. During this period I replaced all bulbs for LEDs so it's all new. Needless to say, everything worked.

Today I checked the printed circuit for continuity from the pin to the two bulb sockets and it's all working fine, so the pin is not the problem. I know these can be an issue but mine are still very well stuck to the circuit.

I then proceeded to check for voltage in the brown wire that goes into the pin in question - with the light switch on and set to full brightness. The result was a big fat nothing.

However, when testing the brown wire on the other circuit (where the lights work) under the same circumstances the test light shows voltage as you would expect. So this also excludes the switch as the problem.

The only thing left is the wire itself... I checked the brown wire a bit further down from the connector and also got nothing. So this excludes the connector as the problem.

The only thing left now is the wire from the switch to the connector, about 500mm of 42-year-old insulated cable that's going to be a nightmare to troubleshoot.

So here is my question. By the looks of it, one single brown wire comes off the headlight switch and at some point gets split into two, which then feed the two circuits. So where exactly does the split happen?

I'm betting the problem will be there because I know there is voltage going through to the other circuit and as far as I can think I have excluded everything else.

Please let me know if my reasoning is correct, as I said I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to electrics.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Both of the instrument panels harness connectors branch from a tape out 'Y' behind the instrument panel. As you unwrap the harness beyond that 'Y' you will find factory weld splices in the harness. The addition of this wire, along with moving the other 2 from the main connector, is one of the few differences between standard and rallye dash harnesses.
 
Kikowillers said:
Hey, if you wanna stop by and help fix my Dart I'll chill a block of stubbies and through some snags on the barbie!
Click to expand...

I would love to, but only a couple of hours layover in brisbane! Sounds like you are on the right track. start un wrapping the harness, it must be in there somewhere!
 
Hey folks!

So check this out. I put the dash back together because I needed to take the car out for wheel alignment. And to my surprise, all the dash lights worked! This gotta be a Gremlin if I've ever seen one!

There must be some problem with the wire somewhere, so I'll be waiting for the issue to happen again.

But for now I'll just let it be, I got enough to work on already...

Cheers!
 
Your car is ALIVE! LOL.
Thats great news.
Grab the wire harness while the lights are on and wiggle it and see if
lights blink on and off.
Darryl
 
Sounds like a ground problem when you took the cluster out and when you tightened the mounting screws you got a ground connection back. Redfish mentioned a permanent ground wire. Do that. Over the decades body panels shift, corrosion happens all stuff that compromises the ground path beck to the battery. The instrument cluster gets its ground from the metal in the dash. With the cluster out - no ground - nothing in the cluster works! With a ground wire from a ground point on your circuit board(s) to a known solid ground, like a screw on your steering column clamp, viola! Stuff works!! be careful not to let those alternator gauge connections touch any metal part of the dash.

Remember, all the solid state electronics in the world run on what technicians call "magic smoke" If the smoke escapes, the electronic part is dead. Accidentally shorting a voltage hot part of your cluster to the dash metal will let the smoke out. That has left me with a stupid expression on my face more than once!

ATB

BC
 
That is very strange. When you put the meter on the brown and yellow
trace wire there was no power. The wire is the one that supplys power to
the right side lights(2 of them) Then there is power to the left side(2 of them)
but power there.
If it is working good now just leave it.
Yes a good ground is a good thing, I will do that myself.
Darryl
 
Eureka!! Problem Solved!

So check this out.

It turns out the dash illumination power on my Brazillian Dart goes like this:

Starting at headlight switch (dimmer), to right-side circuit board (iluminates right side of the dash) - then from a pin in the right-side circuit board all the way back to the left-side circuit board (ilumintates left side of the dash).

And YES, the problem was that the pin which takes power to the left-side circuit board was loose. So points for those who blamed it on a faulty pin!

This became evident after we unwrapped the wiring harness and traced the wires, from that point on the fix was pretty easy - and by that I mean I have a friend who understands electrics! haha!

Thanks for all the help folks, this forum has truly become a great source of info for my restoration.

This is what the dash looks like now. The picture really doesn't do it justice, the LEDs look much better in real life.

Cheers!
 

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It is a nice feeling when we fix and solve things.
Again you have one nice looking ride there!
Darryl
 
Glad you found it, I agree those LED's look great! How did you fix the loose pin?

Missed my connecting flight, ended up having to overnight in Brisbane. Found a local pub and had some dinner. Some kind of big horse racing day down here? The place was crazy!

I really do like your car, were Brazilian cars imported into Australia? Do you know of anymore like it for sale?

David
 
d55dave said:
Glad you found it, I agree those LED's look great! How did you fix the loose pin?

Missed my connecting flight, ended up having to overnight in Brisbane. Found a local pub and had some dinner. Some kind of big horse racing day down here? The place was crazy!

I really do like your car, were Brazilian cars imported into Australia? Do you know of anymore like it for sale?

David
Click to expand...

Hi David!

So you were in Australia during Melbourne Cup Day! The country practically stops for one of the world's most famours horse races. Fortunes are made and lost in that race, it's quite incredible. Just saw on Yahoo that some guy bet 8 cents online and made $77.000,00 out of it - not bad!!!

Anyway, I brought my Dart from Brazil (I migrated to Aus in 2007). You can find these cars in Brazil however there are not many, especially if you're looking for high quality stuff. Besides, the prices are quite high nowadays, probably because in the last 10 years the classic car market in Brazil boomed big time.

It's nonetheless worth having a look at the Brazilian Mopars, they have their own quirky things and are quite literally adored by Brazilians - everybody has a nice story about one.

The interesting thing is there were only A bodies in Brazil (other than pickups and trucks), so the Charger was a "dressed up" Dart - very interesting indeed, try googling it. They evolved through the 70's and finally ended production in (would you believe it) 1981. Now, if you can find a 1981 Magnum or Lebaron you should snatch it straight away, these are the rarest of the rare.

Well, maybe not as rare as my pre-production 1970 Dart Coupe... hehehe

Sorry for taking the thread off-topic but I'm passionate about these cars!

Cheers!
 
And I didn't fix the pin itself, we decided not to drop solder on the board if its not really necessary.

The right-side circuit board actually had another pin (right next to the problematic one) which was part of the harness but wasn't been used for anything - it even had some brown wire with a connector coming out of it but going nowhere, so we just used that one for the left-side of the dash. It was the easiest fix possible, just moved the wire from one pin to the next.

I think this extra wire may have been there to light up a dash tachometer, but my car doesn't have one so it was a free pin! Cool hey?!

So now the next step is to install the Retrosound radio and speaker I just got! Can't wait!

Cheers!
 
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