Technical We have dashboard lights... 1960 Biscayne

I agree. Too much of a coincidence and worth chasing down.

 

Definately check the trailer pigtail.

 

I did not know this! Drove a OT muscle car 22 years with no dash lights. All the rest of electrical was fine. I am betting on the light switch..the one thing I never changed!

 

Make sure whoever installed the radio did not ground the radio to the dash light wire.

 

seems the old chevys had the taillights and dash lights on the same circuit. I haven't had this issue on my 59 ElCamino, but it was constant on my 66 C-10 until I fixed my trailer pigtail properly.

 

My new Napa replacement headlight switch nor did the old switch have a fuse on it... the pigtail that's on the trailer lights looks a bit suspect not that I think about....

 

was there a wire grounding out ? what did you find what the issue was? will look at the trailer hitch wiring... also going to remove the driver side kick panel and see if the parking brake has chaffed any wires...

 

On my C10 the problem always was a short in the tail light wiring,either at the trailer pigtial, or chaffing in the engine compartment.( was horrible at wiring at the time) On your 60, you may want to pull the sill plate, and check under the carpet. The wiring runs in a channel, that should have a metal plate covering it, that runs the length of the door opening. Another subject, Kind of related to your issue, I had a ton of problems with my turn signals and brake lights, which turned out to be an obscured ground path. The tailgate grounds through the hinges. I had to run a few ground pigtails to fix it.

 

Now about this light switch with a fuse on the back of it.None of my 59s has this. plus the parts i have robbed do not! But if i remember right my 56 chevy DOES have the little fuse on the back of switch.
Could it be possible that the 59 switch has a type of circuit breaker in it?

 

Don't want to hijack thread, but where did you run your ground pig tails?

 

I ran a pigtail from the tailgate to the rear pan under the car, grounded the body to the frame at the rear, cleaned and retapped the rear outer tail lamp****emblies, ran a pigtail from each front signal to the core support, reconnected the battery ground to the core support,, and cleaned up the factory engine ground strap from the firewall to the engine, and engine to frame. This was on the 59. On the 66, a small strap from the hood to the firewall, but it was never a field car like my 59.

 

Many thanks. now lets get rob-redm's problem fixed

 

going to tackle this again this weekend.. fighting a hurt back at the moment... going to check the trailer light pig tail... will remove the metal plate cover ( mine are pretty bad and need replacement rusted) Will try to find replacements when I carpet the car( hopefully not hard to find).. I called the previous owner (music amp guy, builds and sells them) We removed the stock radio, he suggested look into if the wire for the old radio illumination is ground out causing the problem... just didn't have dash lights at one point... everything else worked great... Now that I think about ... we pulled the old radio and speaker out the weekend before... drove it home ( all the lights worked including the dash lights) .. parked it ion the garage and no dash lights ... crazy... wondering if the old radio connections are my issue... HMMM

 

as long as you have NO dash board lights, you do realize you cant have paradise........................
ba-da - dmp

 

oh !

 

back at it this weekend !

 

Good luck.

 

Did the factory radio in 1960 have a bulb socket that plugged into the radio? If it did, when the radio was replaced, the bulb might have been removed from the socket and the socket left behind the radio. With no bulb in the socket, the socket can slide on the wire allowing the center contact to ground out on something in the dash. The dash lights might have worked after the radio was installed because it took a while for the contact to ground out.

 

we are going to check that this weekend... sure it's simple... will get this licked ...almost done... just nned to get the seat redone... and carpet in ...

 

so we started from scratch today... So we had dash lights before the radio install... So we had pulled the old factory radio and speaker... Everything was ok with the dash lights having pulled the old equipment from the car... so we had hooked of the power and grounds for new stereo the day we pulled old A.M radio... so we backed tracked to the new radio and unplugged it and the speaker... took out the blown three amp fuse. hooked up a neat old circuit tester he had...So we turned the rheostat on the headlight switch ... YES we have dash lights boys and girls... now why ? so after looking at the wiring diagram and color codes... We found out power to the radio was ok, also for the radio memory... What the issue was that grey wire we connected , was for illumination of the old factory radio. Guess that's not a great source for a ground... So we connected the radio back up replaced the fuse...and dash lights were all ok, and new radio works ( chassis of new stereo must be grounded) will hook up a ground for that later... but we fixed our mistake...

 

It's always something.

 

And there you have it Ladies and Gentlemen!
KK

 

Yay lights.

 

Houston we have dash lights... just back tracked... for our issue ...is was just weird that the dash lights worked once we had removed the old radio and speaker. We had wired the connection for power for new stereo... nothing strange happened on the way home with the dash lights... Just when I came out the next day to drive it.. no dash lights...it must have ground out the next day one I turned the lights back on... I did find out that my dome light does work with a new switch ... the old switch no dome light function doesn't work... So going to install my new headlight switch to have a working dome light again... did get the heater fan working also.. waiting for my heater core to be rebuilt... next project

 

Congrats - basics 101 - when something that was working fails after doing something else go back and re-look at what you did, and how you did it.

 

very true !

 

paradise by the dash board lights..........at last.CONGRATS

 

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who chimed in with advice and suggestion on my dash light issue. problem fixed due to pilot error... many thank you guys !

 

The old "It worked good before I fixed it" problem.

You aren't the first to use the radio light power for the ground on an aftermarket radio. When I worked at a Ford dealer in 79-81, I saw it multiple times. Ford had really*****py radios in their vehicles at that time and many buyers replaced the radio right away. Metal dash board vehicles grounded the radio chassis to the metal in the dash. Aftermarket radios use a ground wire. Ford had a 2 wire plug that went to the radio. Many****umed it was power and ground when it was radio power and radio light.

Glad you found the problem. I didn't think it would be that because you said the dash lights worked after the radio was installed.

 

I've been wondering about that too. If he connected radio lamp power to new radio ground, he should have popped the fuse immediately. I wonder if he had a bad connection there that didn't initially make contact, but then rattled in to contact?