dash lights 71 charger 383 rallye dash

[velrob]

Im trying to understand the dash lighting.

theres a wire going to the steering column but it doesnt indicate which wire exactly

see attached

i know the dash lights connect to the light switch. does it get power from the light switch or steering column?

i attached part of the diagram and the full page

 

[Beekeeper]

There two feeds to the instrument lights the one going to the steering column should be the feed for the PRNDL indicator. Gotta study a bit more on the schematic to find where the other wire is going need the other half of the schematic that continues to the left.

 

[velrob]

does it feed off the 12V accessory wire on the ignition and the light switch?

the dash lights turn on either with the light switch or turning the key ? or key needs to be turned and then the light switch can be used?

from what i see it takes power from the BLACK wire on the ignition?

 

[velrob]

ahhhh that wire is the lamp for the gear selector. my lamp is the floor shifter. so this means power only comes from the light switch now ive figured it out

thanks

 

[road chicken]

Dash lights are light switched activated only, and will turn on with the first detent,(along with the marker lights on the outside of the car- second detent turns on the headlights.
The light switch has full time power from the battery. It does not go through the ignition switch but come from the under dash tie point where 4-5 black wires are crimp welded together. The feed to the switch will be black the feed to the dash lights are orange, the feed to the markers is another color .
The switch also has the dimmer resistor
Which can get funky and screw up operations as well.

L1-16bk on the lightswitch is power coming in from the T1 power crimp I mentioned.
Let me look in my 71 manual to see the rest of the diagram an see how the light switch feeds T3 crimp which feeds all the dash lights.

Ok....L1 bk. And L8 purple are power feeds to the headlight switch.

E1-18T(an) from the switch, feeds back to the fuse block to the instrument lamps fuse, then it becomes E2-O(range) -18 out tothe T3 crimp then to instrument lamps and lamp feeds under the dash.

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Dash lights comes from fuse box with an orange wire. This fuse ( not linked with any of the fuse bars ) gets the power from headlight switch being a tan wire as far I recall.

This orange wire coming from fuse box is spliced somewhere down the tape, close to the cluster. On standard cluster one splice runs to the multipin conector for the PCB, and some other splices are for Radio face, ashtray light, clock or delete plate, AC-control face and a feed for accesories close to the AC-control to feed the switches down the dash. It also gets a splice to the gear face on column at ign switch plug. If car is floor shifter this wire is left unused and floor shifter gets sourced with a couple of wires and wires extenison from the accesories switch feed.

on Rallye cluster is more less the same just getting many extra splices as the cluster light needs ( one to each socket )

This circuit is in fact double fuse protected because the light switch gets a fuse for the parking lights circuit and dash light is sourced also from this circuit inside the switch, but this fuse is 20 amps while the dash light fuse is 5 amps I think, so if the dash lighting circuit gets a small short, the dash light fuse should blow up faster than the parking light fuse ( not allways happen LOL, BTDT )

 

[velrob]

Thx for the reply.

I'm using an after market bulk head that has 21 circuits. I have a seperate fuse for the dash itself. Hopefully I'm more off protected lol

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Stock wiring it gets also a fuse for the run circuit running into the cab ( not the one running to engine bay ) which in some cases like standard cluster for 71/74 feeds the dash circuit for gauges. Rallye cluster its feeded from acc circuit.

This fuse is also appart from the busses bars on fuse box, just right at side of the dimmer light circuit