Interior light problem..IM SO CLOSE

[Big Mort]

Hey all. i got a 1980 corvette. i bought it 2 years ago and have never had working dash lights (this includes speedo, tach, and all the gauges in the cluster). The fuses are good. Ive replaced all the printed circuits and bulbs. The wires look fine. Dont get me wrong...bubba has definately been through my car, but the wires going to my lights look fine. and the kicker is, yesterday i just got a new headlight switch and the headlight switch connector that goes to it. oddly enough the switches are almost identical...buuut the connectors are different.

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~partsort

thats the connector that i got, and i feel like these are the last things i can replace....so why are they different....and could this fix it? it seems like my new connector is missing a black wire and a white wire, but has two orange wires out of the same conductor.
Id really like to see at night..HELP


mort

 

[petes74ttop]

YO Mort,
Link = invalid entry!

 

[Big Mort]

ah crap, well its part number 662112 on corvettecentral.com

 

[petes74ttop]

Can you use the old connector with the new switch?

Are the new & old switches look the same?

You said the fuses are good, the tail light fuse feeds the HL rheostat.
Jumper Courtesy light fuse to the Instrument light fuse, if the bulbs light up the rheostat in the switch is bad.

 

[Big Mort]

the old and new switch are pretty much identical.

The old connector was white and has black spots on it as if it was burnt up. that picture is the new connector i ordered. The old connector has a white and black wire, which the new one does not. and it also doesnt have two orange wires like the new one does. I dont know why this is, and its the only connector I could find as a replacement.

I dont think i mentioned it, but the headlights work fine. they pop up when the switch is pulled and they turn on just fine. The overhead dome light inside works fine also. The blinker lights are the only lights in the dash that work other than that.

 

[petes74ttop]

Sounds like your connector is wired up wrong, you might call CC and see what they say.

If you have power to the instrument light fuse but no dash lights then the wire from the fuse is bad or you have no ground.
A single black wire goes from the gauges and connects on the drivers side bird cage near the HL switch.

 

[Big Mort]

are you saying that corvette central sent me my connector wired wrong? ive found that same connector on several sites and it looks exactly the same on every one. Why is my original connector wired different than the one i bought? I may just be missing something obvious. but the wires that come out of my harness (that go to the headlight switch) will not match up to the new connector i have. does the new connector have to have something done to it in order to make it fit?

 

[Big Mort]

tonight i replaced the headlight switch and connector. the lights still dont work so i dove alil deeper into the wire situation. i tested the voltage going to the speedo/tach, and the only lights working on it are the blinkers and the little choke light. so im guessing there has to be a problem in the wires between the switch and the gauges. i started taking some tape off and found a brown wire coming from the headlight switch has been tampered with and was just rolled up into three other wires and taped up. i guess my next step is just ripping out the entire harness and breaking it down.....any opinions or suggestions?