Dash Lights Wont Come On

[Tater-Roy]

New Member! this place rocks!

A few months back i bought a '70 f250 camper special. I had some rewiring done and also tried to put a radio in but the original was toast. I most recently installed aftermarket oil, coolant temp, and voltage gauges. However, when i was trying to get the radio back in i must've pinched the copper line going to the oil gauge at the firewall, and as i was driving home it gave out and spewed oil EVERYWHERE inside the cab and behind the dash....... i fixed it no problem, and the llights and everything worked fine when i drove it home but i parked it for a week and when i came back to do a second clean up noticed none of the lights inside the cab work except the red high beam indicator, which is now VERY dim and the lights on AC panel. i can live without a dome light but all the other dash lights wont work. The relay clicks on and off when i pull the headlight switch and the headlights work fine. The switch is also turned to where the brightest setting should be.. I really dont want to rewire AGAIN, and hope someone might have a quick resolve for this so any ideas?

p.s. also checked fuses and they are fine.

[71Fe2O3]

Oil spraying into the cab of the truck sounds terrible-I hope that it at least had been changed recently so it wasn't too dirty and smelly. I have been thinking about replacing the stock electrically powered gauge with one that runs off a direct oil line, and wondered if that ever happens, so now I know. Good luck getting it all cleaned out.

I can't say for sure because I have not heard of this happening before, but the fact that all of your dash lights are affected could mean that you got oil in the contacts where the wires plug into the back of the instrument panel. Have you taken the panel out and tried to clean the contacts? The printed circuit board on the back of the panel can get brittle with age, but you might be able to gently clean it with cotton swabs dipped in soapy water. I would be inclined to take the panel out, remove all the bulbs, and gently clean all contact points. Last time I had my panel out I took it apart and cleaned off the clear plastic lens-it looks much better now. Also consider probing the wires on the plug with a test light to see if you have electricity that far.

It makes sense that your headlights work because the wires for the lights themselves are not routed through the panel. Do your parking lights and turn signals work?

[Tater-Roy]

Yeah the copper wire can get smashed and pinched and eventually explode like mine did.. but ill probably upgrade to a braided steel line soon so i don't have to worry about that again.
The turn signals work on the outside but nothing shows on the inside. I tried taking the instrument panel out but there was hardly enough room for me to get even a finger or two behind it. just ordered a new paper circuit from LMC, figured if i'm going to go through the trouble of getting it off id put a new one on ..
i love driving the truck so much i just hate to spend a nice weekend working on something that's not so critical. *sigh

[cep62]

none of the lights inside the cab work except the red high beam indicator, which is now VERY dim

check to make sure the panel has a good ground.