63 console wiring harness squawk

[petelempert]

I've got the console on my 63 disassembled for restoration. Before re-assemby, I wanted to test the console wiring harness. I installed fresh bulbs all around and hooked it up. It's just the harness laying on the floor, none of the other console parts. I've got all three courtesy lights working properly, but the shift indicator lens light is inop. Here are the facts:

 

1. Headlight switch is on.

2. Grounded my test light to the dash support for the console and got a positive power indication from the single wire (white I think) coming out of the harness leading to the lens socket. 

3. Touched the test light needle to the actual socket and got both positive test light and lens light bulb to illuminate.

4. Thought it might a ground problem. So thinking it might be grounded on the actual metal shift indicator (PND1R) I took the lens socket and actually stuck it in the shift indicator. Nada.

 

So, I've got power but no light. Is there a ground I am missing? Is it actually grounded on the entire metal console pieces that I've refurbished but not yet assembled? When I got the car, the entire console was out and laying in the back seat, so am I missing some wire that I've never seen? Maybe it isn't a ground problem? Any advice? Thx PRL

 

 

[Seafoam65]

                Pete, if the illumination socket for the console has only one wire, the socket gets

it's ground from the metal on the console. If  it's a two wire socket, one wire should be a ground and the other hot with the lights

turned on. If you only have a one wire socket, I assume that the socket has a metal case that goes in a metal hole in the bottom

of the lens housing. If this is the case, the metal lens housing must be somehow grounded to the metal floor board or a bracket

that is bolted to the floorboard. It may be that you just need to assemble the console in order for the lens housing to get a ground.

[Guest atomickneedrop]

Hi Pete

Did you turn the rheostat on the headlight switch? They could be dimmed. Turn it until the sail panel lights come on, the light would be at their brightest then.

[petelempert]

K-I had the dimmer on full blast. It is all about the ground. On the 63, the metal socket that holds the shift indicator bulb connects to the metal shift indicator, the metal shift indicator bolts to the face of the console which is metal, which bolts to a metal u shaped bracket inside the console, which bolts to the metal floor, which bolts to the metal frame and serves as ground-which is a lot of bolting and connecting. The reason I was having a squawk was because I was testing the console harness separate from the actual console. The harness was just laying on the seat, therefore, no ground. Conversely, the courtesy lights have an independent ground, so they lit up perfectly. I thought I had a problem with the shift indicator wiring, but actually the problem was with my brain because I couldn't  figure it out. I need to stop and think like my test light thinks. Electricity, it's sort of tricky. PRL