Ok, I'm a knucklehead... I need help!

[dewbers]

Guys - this seems like such a dumb question, I am almost embarrassed to ask it... :o

My dash lights are out. I can't find a burned fuse to save my life. I replaced the little 10 amp one, but that didn't work. I know Rick offered some advice on this in another thread, but his advice centered around a more serious problem than just the fuse. I want to eliminate the fuse question first! Does anyone know what fuse control's the dash lights? It's just the lights themselves. When I roll the button up, the inside lights come on, so the switch seems to be working. It feels like a fuse to me, b/c all the lights are out. (man is it dark in there when driving home with ZERO lights coming from the dash!)

Stumped and looking for help guys... :confused4:

[73 Centurion]

I don't know which fuse controls the interior lights, but I can offer some guidance.

There are 4 possible causes.

1) Headlight Switch. The dash lights are dimmed by the switch and if that contact fails you get a black out. If you have a spare switch you can test it fairly easily.

2) Blown fuse. If you have a test light you can ground it and test both sides of each fuse. The light should illuminate on both sides of the fuse. When you find one that lights on one side only you have your blown fuse. If the fuse is blown you should spend some time inspecting the wiring to spot what caused the fuse to blow. Look particularly for wires resting against a metal edge. Everything under the dash seems to have been sharpened to a fine edge at the factory.

3) Mass bulb demise. Check the glovebox and ashtray to see if either of those are lighting.

4) Wiring, since all of the bulbs are out this is less likely. Eliminate the other causes before chasing down this path.

Good Luck and let us know what you find.

[The German]

Steve, I´m not a specialist for such questions but will try to help:

If the fuse is okay you had no short cut, but you should control whether there is power at the fuse contacts. If there is power you have to follow the wire to the dash lights because then only the wire could be broken or without connection.
A help to find the failure could be to bring power from the fuse to the end of one wire at one dash lamp. If all other lamps are burning then, you can be sure that the problem is between the both points you brought the power from / to. For a provisional arrangement you could fix the new second power line to have the light on again and search for the failure later.
If the fuse contacts have no power you have to search for the failure following the wire which is coming to the fuse. Also a help could be to get power from another power bearing point and cross the failure this way.

So far my ideas; hope you will get more and better knowledge based help !!
But perhaps my thoughts will be help enough; just test it.

Good luck !

Added: I looked into my service manual and found that the fuse for the dash lights is the one at the lower end on the right side having 10 A - but that´s for a 1971 car !

[centurion 455 ragtop]

I don't know which fuse controls the interior lights, but I can offer some guidance.

There are 4 possible causes.

1) Headlight Switch. The dash lights are dimmed by the switch and if that contact fails you get a black out. If you have a spare switch you can test it fairly easily.

2) Blown fuse. If you have a test light you can ground it and test both sides of each fuse. The light should illuminate on both sides of the fuse. When you find one that lights on one side only you have your blown fuse. If the fuse is blown you should spend some time inspecting the wiring to spot what caused the fuse to blow. Look particularly for wires resting against a metal edge. Everything under the dash seems to have been sharpened to a fine edge at the factory.

3) Mass bulb demise. Check the glovebox and ashtray to see if either of those are lighting.

4) Wiring, since all of the bulbs are out this is less likely. Eliminate the other causes before chasing down this path.

Good Luck and let us know what you find.

Good starting points. Though my favorite is the term "Mass bulb demise" though true I still spit my coffee out laughing out loud. Very well put.:xyxthumbs:

With the fuses I thought the small 1/2" fuse on the bottom of the breaker box is the fuse for the interior lights. I did see on Myth Busters about a guy who jumped a fuse in his pick-up with a live 22 cal. round, he said it actually went off. I think it was a busted myth.

Anyway good luck Steve. I HATE electrical work! Especially under the dash where you have to perform yoga moves to get at some of the spots. Hang tough and TAKE YOUR TIME.:xyxthumbs:

[Phil Genario]

Guys - this seems like such a dumb question, I am almost embarrassed to ask it... :o

My dash lights are out. I can't find a burned fuse to save my life. I replaced the little 10 amp one, but that didn't work. I know Rick offered some advice on this in another thread, but his advice centered around a more serious problem than just the fuse. I want to eliminate the fuse question first! Does anyone know what fuse control's the dash lights? It's just the lights themselves. When I roll the button up, the inside lights come on, so the switch seems to be working. It feels like a fuse to me, b/c all the lights are out. (man is it dark in there when driving home with ZERO lights coming from the dash!)

Stumped and looking for help guys... :confused4:you know what i think dont you! i think its the monster truck tires that you have on her. i think the heavy vibration coming from them caused a short somewhere in the dash! glad to be of help,phil

[dewbers]

Pretty good advice guys.... except you Phil. I was curious what you looked like, so I looked up smart @$$ in my Webster's dictionary and low and behold I found you! You're quite a guy! :Brow: :laugh:

Actually Phil, I laughed outloud at your comments, (thankfully, I didn't spill my coffee like Rick did!!) which prompted my staff to come in to see what the fuss was all about. They didn't get it and once again walked from my office totaly baffled about the guy who signs their paychecks. What else is new?!?! :confused4:

Rolf - you are the MAN. I will be going home this afternoon, and replacing that fuse! I don't have a tester (which I'll be buying soon!) so I hope it's the bottom right fuse as you suggested! I'll let you all know. That way you'll be prepared if it ever happens to you!

Thanks fella's... (except you Phil)!!!
:beers:

[The German]

... ... Rolf - you are the MAN. I will be going home this afternoon, and replacing that fuse! I don't have a tester (which I'll be buying soon!) so I hope it's the bottom right fuse as you suggested! ... ...

Oh, Steve, I had some electric work at my car today and found out that I made a mistake regarding that fuse: it is not the right one, it´s the small left one that is for the lights in the dash board!! :Dou: The right one is named "gauges" and that was the reason why I assumed these was the correct fuse for the light.
Hope you hadn´t lost too much time following my mistake (?)!

Excuse me, Steve.
We both are still learners in such things and so the good is that we will never forget these two fuses.;)

BTW: is your light alife now or do you still have problems with it?

[Austrian455]

My dash lights also go out sometimes. In my car the headlight / dimmer switch is the problem. i just have to turn it around a little bit and it goes on again. Maybe that helps but I think i´m bit late on this topic.

[dewbers]

Hey Austrian - I should have updated this... sorry. Your problem is the same as mine. It was the headlight/dimmer switch. Swapped it out and the problem was fixed. Never would have thought of it. My mechanic (I'm not terribly good at this stuff anymore!) mentioned it might be that. So off to the NAPA store I went... 30 minutes and few bucks later, problem solved.....