Wacky dash & tail light malfunction

[goldfish65]

Stopped for gas tonite, continued home, suddenly dash lights went out, tail lights/brake lights went out, and courtesy light in passenger footwell came on and stayed on. Finally something I did with the switch or the brake pedal got the courtesty light to turn off. Rotating headlight switch all the way counterclockwise now doesn't activate the interior lights on the sail panels. Rear turn signal lamps still work normally. Early-a guru's...any ideas? Thanks.

 

[805moparkid]

i would say the headlight switch took a crap....

had something similar happen on my 68 dart

 

[goldfish65]

The brake pedal now controls the courtesy light lol. What coud be going on?

 

[TylerW]

Sounds like you could have lost a ground or something similar.

The courtesy light "working" doesn't necessarily means it's getting it's normal power supply. A bad ground can cause the return voltage to seek another path and if that path is through a light bulb, then the bulb lights up.

I would check all the bulbs and sockets on the park and brake light circuit. You'll likely find one bad. I've had a filament break and fall against the other filament in the bulb and cause a short that way as well.

 

[slantsixdan]

The dash lights and the rear lights are on the same fuse so if your safety lights out back fail, you have an in-car indication of the fault. Often this is due to the rear light wires chafing against metal edges, but not always -- could also be a short to ground elsewhere, or a short to the courtesy light wiring. Time to trace wires and inspect, find and fix the damage.

It's not your headlamp switch causing the problem.

 

[goldfish65]

OK thanks very much for the good info.