no lights on dash work, cant drive at night!!!

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

new to forum, hoping someone can help me with my issue... a little backstory first... a few years ago, one of my four front wheel cylinders went bad, couldnt find the parts to fix, car sat for a year, shoes went bad, found a place online that sold the parts needed, fixed everything, went to go for drive, went to turn on lights, and dash lights did not turn on, the only thing that turned on was the left signal light, but thats been like that... now the car, it is a 1960 chrysler windsor, pretty basic of a car, since its just the base model, and all i know is that the term for the lights for that car is called

panelescent lighting, i know the control units tend to go bad, but from what i understand is that that only controls the speedometer lights, correct me if im wrong... my issue deals with ALL my dash lights, so if anyone has any ideas id like to hear.

[keiser31]

If the taillights do not go on as well as the dash lights, check for a blown fuse.

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

ive checked the fuses a few times and they were fine, but i will check them once more just to be sure

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

tailights do work... no blown fuses, i did find a capacitor behind the speedometer... i dont know what its for tho...

[hchris]

Although I dont know your car, Chrysler commonly used a wire wound variable resistor within the lighting switch to control the intensity of the instrument lights. Most often you just rotated the knob, like a volume control, to vary the amount of illumination.

Usually over a period of time this resistor would corrode/get dirty, to the point where it affected the instrument lights.

I would start by removing the switch and checking its internals, if it has the wire resistor you can access it with the switch removed and simply clean the resistor with an abrasive pad or similar. The switch may also contain a set of visible contacts which turn the lights off completely if you rotate the knob far enough, these also corrode and can be easily cleaned without further dismantling.

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

that sounds like the kind of switch i have... i will have to crawl under my dash and see what i can do, thanks for the information.

[hchris]

OK do you have the dimmer unit within your light headlight switch? - if so then removing the switch from the panel involves pulling the knob all the way out (as you would when turning lights on) at the same time depress a small button on top of the switch unit (not easy to reach round the back of the instrument panel).

This will allows the knob and shaft to come completely out of the switch assembly (disconnect the battery before this otherwise you leave the headlights on).

You can now undo the securing nut which holds the switch unit in place and remove it from back of the panel.

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

i do, and thanks for that tip, i just learned something new, i will update after i get the switch out

[Rusty_OToole]

Does your car have the electroluminescent light system? If so you should read this thread.

http://forums.aaca.org/f145/62-new-yorker-dash-help-279827.html

Even though your car was the base model Chrysler it had a lot of features other cars did not have.

Incidentally be careful monkeying around behind the dash. They operate on 270volts and can give you quite a lifter. Best disconnect the battery and let it sit for a while before you try to take it apart.

Some more info from the Imperial people.

http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1960/Panelescent/index.htm

Edited August 3, 2010 by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

ok, got the switch out, took me about 5 minutes to find the little button, and another 5 to get the knob off, took pictures of wires so i wont mess anything up, and yes i did disconnect my battery, took me about 5 minutes to see what the problem was, corrosion, took apart the piece that spins, cleaned it up, put it back together and back in car, and well, it works just like it did before... one setting for light, no dimmer, not sure why, off, and map light!!! thanks for the help everyone!!! greatly appreciated!!!

[hchris]

Well done !!

[Guest snowmaninwhite]

thank you!!