1952-59 Ford 56 Instrument Lights Issue

I have the original guages still in my 56 Fairlane. They don't light up so it makes if difficult to drive at night time when I can't see them.

What should I look at first? Are they controlled at the headlight switch?

I looked under the dash and there are many connection to the switch unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Jerry

 

They do tie into the headlight switch. Maybe check to make sure it's relaying power to the gauge cluster to start with.

 

Try turning you light switch back an forth sometimes that will clean the reastat in the switch that works the dash lights

 

The head light switch is fairly easy to remove, take it out and check to see if you are getting power to the dash lights when you turn on the lights.

 

Did the '56 switch have those little buss fuses in it? That's where I would start looking. How old is the switch? I tend to toss old HL switches just to be on the safe side.

 

There is a rheostat that controls the dash lights. If that is bad, the lights will not work. Working the knob back and forth might help to loosen any corrosion on it but if that fails you probably have to remove the headlight switch.

If you do remove it, first make sure the lights work by bypassing the rheostat and apply power directly to the wire responsible for the dash lights. if the lights go on this way, then it is the rheostat that is bad. If the lights don't go on, then you may have a wiring problem

If it's the rheostat, try lightly sandpapering the contact points (the coil and the contact) to see if that works

 

Thanks! Any tips on how to remove the headlight switch?

It will probably be easier to troubleshoot with it out. I have never had one of these out. I'm sure it is the original switch and I don't want to break it.

Thanks again for all of the help.

 

Reach up under the dash and feel around on top of the switch. You should feel a*****on there, press it down and pull the knob and shaft out of the switch. Remove the bezel and push the switch into the dash. It should drop down far enough for you to access the wire connections. Reverse the procedure to reinstall.

 

Thanks!

 

Glad to help.

 

Before pulling the switch check the power at the connector with a test light. The light socket grounds through the outside of the socket so if its not plugged in the light won't work. Similarly, if the ground to the dash itself is broken the lights won't work. After you determine if the socket has power or not then proceed to the light switch.

Remember to ground your test light to the dash not the gauge insert.

 

Before you pull the switch,check the small light bulbs,every one of mine were burnt out. HRP

 

I agree with Danny ran into same thing on mine

 

The bulbs all should be common including the one at the heater. There are probably 2 sizes of bulbs, I believe the turn signal indicator is smaller than the ones that light up the gauges. Mine were size 57 & 73, not a bad idea to replace them all.

 

I had my dash cluster out during my re-wire. There was a blue wire that connected the dash bulbs, same blue wire for the heater control lighting. So I made it all common and removed the inline fuse at the heater light. I connected the blue wire to my gauge light wire in the harness. Of course this goes back to the HL switch and I can dim everything on the dash.

 

This is the back of my cluster, I cleaned it up quite a bit, but you can see the blue wire that powers up all the lights.

 

Just wanted to let you guys know that I pulled out my HL switch and cleaned the the rheostat. That did the trick. the dash lights now work.

Now I have another dumb question. If you have the HL switch in the parking light position do the tail lights come on too? Everything works like it should including the parking lights going out when the headlights are on. However the tail lights are not on when the switch is in the parking light position. I looked at my wiring schematic and I don't see any fuses other than the one on the back of the switch for the dome light. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all of the help!

 

Yes - the taillights should go on when when the parking lights are activated.

 

Thanks! I guess I'll pull the switch back out and start troubleshooting.