no dash lights

[red 69 runner]

I started to trace the cause of my dash lights not working and now have almost the complete dash taken apart,found the cause to be the plug that goes into the dash circuit board and the pins on the circuit board were corroded and not tight.I got a new circuit board but now I am going to replace the dash harness complete.I found wires cut from the fuse block and a couple of hacked in spots along the harness.i can get a new harness from year 1 for about $500.00.Has anybody installed one of these harnesses?any feedback would be apprieciated.

 

[moparstuart]

the 69 harnesses are great , spot on and work amazing , now if you had a 70 harness i would tell you to patch up the original and run far away from the repops . They are a night mare .

 

[red 69 runner]

thanks

thanks,I really didnt want to get this deep into it but the pins on the round connector that goes into the circuit board are really scary looking and the fuse block has a couple wires that look like they got a little hot and since winter is here might as well take some time to do it right.Just haveing trouble dealing with the idea that I cant just go out and jump in and go for a ride,I dont know how the guys doing complete restorations can stand it.

 

[eagleone1983]

Also do yourself a favor and pack the new harness connections full of dielectric grease that will help protect the connections from corroding in the future. I didn't have the luxury of buying a new dash harness but mine wasn't that bad just a few places hacked into, mostly for an aftermarket radio. I was able to get everything figured out, cleaned, spliced correctly, and retaped. I did replace all harnesses that go into the engine bay and used the same company that yearone sells. They are fantastically made harnesses.

 

[tpodwdog]

red.... make sure you check ALL the grounds for the dash. bad grounds make mopars do STRRRRRRRANGEEEEEEEE things. i just went thru what you are doing now on my 70 RR. i pulled the plug from the circuit board and sanded the terminals with fine grit sandpaper....and cleaned the female parts of the plug with a riffler file. ( a riffler file is used by luthiers and jewelers). plugged it in andVOILAAAAA. everything worked. of course i plan to rebuild my dash but i wanted to make sure everything was in good working order b4 i do this. this way i knew it worked once...and any probs will be easier to find if there are any.

good luck young skywalker....and use the schwartz! (sorry about the door thing...i thought i had one 4 ya)

 

[BuckNeccid]

You can use solder on the circuit board. I did the pins to the tracks, and then used some solder to bridge the breaks in a couple of places. It takes some time and patience, and be sure to follow up each track with a test light and some really close inspection of it, using a low wattage soldering iron, and you'll be surprised at how realitively easy it is to fix the circuit board.

 

[Propwash]

You can use solder on the circuit board. I did the pins to the tracks, and then used some solder to bridge the breaks in a couple of places. It takes some time and patience, and be sure to follow up each track with a test light and some really close inspection of it, using a low wattage soldering iron, and you'll be surprised at how realitively easy it is to fix the circuit board.

Yup! Had to do the same thing on my Coronet...The top 3 pins came completely off the board. Don't do what I did and down three Java the huts before doing the work...Steady.....Steady......................

As far as the harness, save yourself some lute if you can and try to save the old. Get a good wiring schematic, take some reference pic's, unwrap all the old tape, check the insulation/clips/plugs and ohms check the wires. Steel wool or file all the male/female connections and top it off with some dielectric grease....A good weekend or two you should be ready to Rock n' Roll.

 

[red 69 runner]

I already had the new circuit board and I got a new harness from Roony's parts.It is the same harness from Year One made by H&M but it was only $469.00 from him.I got it the mail on Sat and it was sealed in a factory bag,looks good,exact match,i am going to replace the rear light harness while i am at it,By the way i now have just about the whole dash apart.It has some small surface rust so i am going to sand it down and repaint it also I found on EBay a new center A/C vent and bezel mine were in bad shape the turning vanes were broken and the bezel also was broke on the left side so it couldnt be screwed down.Just taking my time with it since winter is here.http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/red69runner/

 

[Propwash]

Wow! Sharp looking Runner. Very nice..

 

[red 69 runner]

Its been awhile but I sent my heat/a/c box out to be rebuilt and just got it back so with that installed I just put the new harness in tonight and now there seems to be something shorting out in the gauge cluster.I screwed it in and didnt have the switch bezel in but all the plugs are separated and not touching any thing so I just wanted to move the car but when I go to connect the negative battery cable I get a big zap.I pulled the cluster back out and dont get the short from the negative cable now so I hooked a jumper from the cluster to the dash frame and the wire got hot and the negative zapped again,any ideas what could be causing this,new harness,new circuit board from charger specialitys.the red and black are on the correct terminals on the cluster.dont know where to start looking andy help would be apprieciated..

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

You have a positive short to ground, you say you have the red and black on the correct terminals what are you referring to the battery or the cluster? AMP gauge?

 

[70Fish]

Stuart, I installed a new 70 one on my ride. The only down side for these is there's some extra crap in there I don't need for a Charger, and I just taped those connections up. Everything else was simple plug-n-play.

the 69 harnesses are great , spot on and work amazing , now if you had a 70 harness i would tell you to patch up the original and run far away from the repops . They are a night mare .

 

[red 69 runner]

just got home and started plying with it again,went over everything again.unplugged the ignition switch and the circuit board round pin connector and got the same thing,so I re connected everything and screwed the cluster back in with 2 screws 1 at top right and 1 at bottom left.I just put a factory tach in and i unbolted the fude block and dissconnected the tach wire and the used glove box light that I just got.i left the fuse block just sitting there free and i connected the battery and no sparks.the dome light came on.turned the key and the car started and ran.I connected the tach wire and the glove box light wire.everything seems ok now.I dont know what to make of it.

 

[red 69 runner]

finished installing the rest of the switches and the bezel.my guess was the gauge cluster was not making a good ground because when I put all the screws in and tight the problem went away.every thing works now including the dash lights.any feed back on the gauge cluster not being grounded well causing this would be appriciated

 

[moparstuart]

Stuart, I installed a new 70 one on my ride. The only down side for these is there's some extra crap in there I don't need for a Charger, and I just taped those connections up. Everything else was simple plug-n-play.

M & H must be doing a better job now because all my colors of wires and plugs were wrong and there was almost 20 extra plugs mixed it . Mine was a total night mare ... I still have several issues under my dash and Its and A/C dash with all the ductwork such a pain to work on .

 

[red 69 runner]

the only thing extra was the 2 wires for the headlight on buzzer which my car didnt have,yes the a/c ductwork makes it a pain to work on now,when everything was out it looked like so much room,I ordered a new repop dimmer swith today and am hopeing I can install it without taking the switch bezel out again,the 69 rr was engineered wrong because you have to bolt the top half of the dash pad in before the bezel and I have to put the bezel in and then reach from underneath to plug in the switches,I thought i did a good job on cleaning the dimmer switch which is why i didnt get the new one while waiting 6 weeks for the heater box to come back from classic auto air.they did a great job.
<a href="http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/red69runner/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_0066.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/red69runner/IMG_0066.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[red 69 runner]

<a href="http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/red69runner/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_0064.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/red69runner/IMG_0064.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

lmao, use the IMG link from Photobucket just one click when you see copied then just past it here.

 

[hacmjim]

I put one in my 69 rr and it appears to be complete and correct. I am still having issues, but I think it is my fault, not the fault of the harness. I think it is worth the investment.