'59 Speedo lights

[Bwmurph]

Apparently the two dash lights on the right side of my speedometer are not working. I replaced the easier one to get to (none of them are real easy to get to !) with a new bulb and it still didn't work. Then I replaced it with with a bulb that I know was working (took it out of the gauge cluster) and it still doesn't work ! WTH ?

Question: If one of the bulbs on a side doesn't work does it affect the other ? DO you have to replace them both ? I'm 99% sure that the fuse for the dash lights covers ALL the bulbs, so I don;t think that's it and when glancing at the fuses they all seemed OK as far as I could tell.

I also know that the socket has to be "grounded" against the gauge cluster for the bulbs to work and that's not an issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,

Bernie O.

 

[JohnZ]

You probably have either bad sockets or broken wires - all of those illumination bulbs are fed by gray wires, and all of the gray wires are fed from the same splice point in the harness. A test light will tell you which problem you have - if it shows power, you have a socket issue, and if it doesn't, you have a broken wire.

 

[Bwmurph]

Thanks John; not sure which one I would rather have it be; the spice joint or the bad socket.

Regardless, I've got bigger (much bigger !) problems now -- blew the clutch out of it last weekend simply pulling away from a stoplight. So it's up on jackstands and about half apart at this point (that shifter is NOT fun to get out of there and my guess it's going to be even harder to get it back in !) Not sure how long its going to take me since I have to be "on the road" for business most of the next few weeks.

Thanks again for your help,

Bernie O.