Alright, I've been trying to figure out the idiot lights, in my 66 olds Dynamic. None of them work. The the cold light came on once a a while back. But that was it. I've checked the bulbs. And for broken wires, and made sure sensors where all hooked up. Fuel gauge is in the same panel as the lights, and it works fine. Alternator still charges, despite the warning lamp not working. Any tips would be appreciated.
You didn't mention fuse box .....I was thinking they would be part of the circuit . Also google for a 1966 Olds wiring diagram to view all the components .
-- Edited by teejay99 on Sunday 26th of June 2016 06:38:56 PM
I've try'd the ground, according to the service manual it grounds to the dash. Made another ground, but made no difference. I'm starting to think it may be the printed circuit, on the back of the cluster. I wiggled the plug connector around, and fuel gauge went to Full. Took the connector off, all the pins look clean, but a few are a bit loose.
The alternator wouldn't ground to the dash . with the engine off the power flows through the key then the light to the alt making ground and lighting up. It should be the 1 terminal on a 3 wire and I think the 4 terminal on a regulator . When its on and charging you have power on both sides of the light and it go's out. If you disconnect the fuel sender it will read full on a older gm product so shaking it probably lost the sender connection . Still it sounds like a bad ground . If your getting full voltage at the sense line Id try a jumper between the connector at the alt and neg on the battery and see if it lights up.
The sense line has power. Not sure the voltage, as I need to get a new battery for my volt meter. Try'd the jumper, still nothing. I'll post up my wire diagram from my service manual. Not to sure how well it will show up.
hot & cold lights work on a ground circuit at sender . If you ground out each wire to block or intake the light 'should come on!! Just remember which wire goes where on sender .
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hot & cold lights work on a ground circuit at sender . If you ground out each wire to block or intake the light 'should come on!! Just remember which wire goes where on sender .
Already tried that. No go Lol.
I wonder if the ground wire from the ignition switch, is broke somewhere in the harness? I'll pull the cluster plug, and see if I can make a jumper to the ground going to it.
Also looks like someone replaced the fuse box, once apon a time. I notice'd last night.
I'm assuming that you have checked all of the fuses with a test light or an ohm meter, and not just by eye.
Did you check for ignition power to the dash plug [that feeds the printed circuit]? You said some pins seemed
a bit loose, loose enough not to make a good connection? Did you follow the individual copper strips on
the printed circuit to make sure they are not "broken"?
You also said the fuel gauge works [sending unit being at the back of the car],
every thing from the front of the car doesn't work, right? Then maybe you should be looking at the
bulkhead connector behind the fuse box, you may find the terminals in there have corroded.
Don't confuse yourself looking at wiring diagrams until you have checked these things for good connections,
the fact that the fuel gauge works tells me a lot!
Yes, I did the test light thing, with the fusses etc. the one thing I didn't do was check the connection inside the bulb sockets. And after some cleaning. I had success. The only one that still doesn't work is the oil light. Probably the sender.
Don't just assume it is the sender, you may end up opening another can of worms if you break the sender trying to get it out. Take the wire off the sender and ground it, the light should come on. If it doesn't, check the wire for continuity back to the dash plug. If no continuity, then the problem is in the wiring. Still could be a bad sender as well, but eliminate the wiring first.