dash lights inop on my 56 Century

[Guest Pletch]

None of my dash lights work (even the turn signal indicators dont work, but the turn signals do). There appears to be a circuit breaker build into the headlight switch but I'm finding very little information how to test it or if this is even true. The headlights, tail lights, exterior turn lights and brake lights all work.

Any thoughts?

[Paul Falabella]

Don't know if the switch is the same, but something similar occurred on my 55. Could be corrosion on the rheostat. Working it back and forth and a light sand paper fixed mine. Other threads deal with similar problems. There was a NOS light switch on ebay last week.

[JohnD1956]

Presuming you have checked at least several bulbs? You may find it easy enough to pull off the top of the dash for access.

As to the circuit breaker, the 56 manual says the circuit breaker is a thermo limiter switch, and the panel light circuit is protected by this same switch. If your parking lamps and headlights work, then the panel lights should also have power. You would know if this switch is bad because the thermo limiter switch is a set of contact points which would cause the lights to flicker, not necessarilly fail to operate in entirety.

Also, your dash board signal light indicators are a totally separate circuit which is protected by a fuse in the fuse panel. However if the outside lights are working then the fuse is okay.

[1956century]

I had the same problem. The dash lights didn't work due to a faulty rheostat in the headlight switch. Refer to the repair manual for a detailed description of the switch, but there are various leads sending power to each component (dash lights, headlights, etc.). The rheostat output goes to the dash lights lead. Since I don't really care for dimming adjustment, I hardwired the dash lights to one of the other leads using a simple 2-to-1 connector made out of spare wire and a few disconntects. Now the backlight works, but only at 100% brightness, which is fine by me (not all that bright anyway).

The turn signals ended up being a separate issue. I found that the outside signals worked (very fast), but the inside indicators didn't. Turns out the signal flasher was the culprit. I borrowed a friends flasher from a '55 and it worked perfectly - all bulbs flash nice and slow. I still haven't been able to find a brand new one that works. I bought a couple from various places and they all did the same thing.