Having truoble with dashbord lighting and fuses. I shorted out the fuse when removing the glove box light. Now I don’t have dash lights.
Already put in a new headlight switch prior to the this and all dash lights were working except for the turning signal dashligths.
Questions I need help with:
Thank for your help!
Crazy Jim
The model year is significant to the wiring details for on-line help. Also I strongly recommend that you get the wiring diagrams for you year model. It may take some effort to get used to reading them but they will tell how everything in connected. West Coast Classic Cougars has a free download
Here’s the link for the '67. It will get you close if you need a different year.
I have a 1968 Cougar. I already downloaded the PDF and it helps me, but I’m no wiring guy. I have changed all the fuse in the fuse block, ordered new wiring pieces from WCC and waiting for some to items to arrive. I noticed a connection problem in the block and fixed it. still no dash lights or turning signal lights on the dash. All the bulbs are now LED and worked in prior to blowing the fuse.
Dash lamp fuse is unrelated to map light and other (courtesy) lights. Power comes from headlight switch, through the headlight switch rheostat (which controls the voltage), then to outer clip on fuse box, through fuse to inner clip, and then out to various dash lamps.
If the dash lamp (2.5 amp) fuse blows, that usually means there’s a short somewhere. LED’s complicate things a bit, as they are typically polarized and must be inserted the proper orientation. However, if one LED is mis-inserted, that shouldn’t affect the others.
Hope this helps…
Not being familiar with wiring makes it extra challenging. It’s usually either continuity checking, no resistance between points that should be connected. The other approach, is to check for voltage along the way as you feed from the fuse to the non-working pieces (this requires some caution, as it easy to short out something by accident). First you should check that the ground side of the circuit is connected. The dash lights are feed from the headlight switch, through the dimmer resister and then on to the dash panel. The dimmer resistor is variable resistor with contacts on a resistor coil. This can be open or too high a value to light the LEDs. Matching the LEDs to its range can be an issue but you should be alright if you got them as a kit from a reliable source. From there power goes to the dash. As was mentioned most LEDs only work in one current direction.
Thanks to all of you! Problem solved!
It’s not free.
And what was the solution?