Did you disconnect the connector and verify the pins aren't corroded or damaged? I would.

 

Good call but not yet. It was 50 degrees out and when they are that cold I find they really really don't like to come apart with anything approaching grace or civility.

 

Finally had more time for this. I have a very cramped work space at the moment; everything takes twice as long because of my caution around the car. I have 8" of room on each side at the moment.

I disconnected and removed the battery. Cleaned everything in the area, which is my SOP for new to me cars if I need to do anything to them; I find loose and missing stuff, and when it goes back together I am not dirty at the end of the job. I removed the grounds at the firewall. Cleaned the straps, wire brushed, and lightly sanded the ends. Steel wool on the stud to gleaming clean.Visually straps look new. New nut and washers. New battery in. Thanks for all the suggestions on the group 34.

I removed the two bulkhead connectors on driver's side yesterday; it was 60* and I popped them loose. Brass brushed contacts. Blew them out. Electronics cleaner sprayed in (safe to plastic) then also blew them out. Nylon brushed, blew that out. Firmly reconnected Cleaned the snot out of everything on that side too.

Door open, no dome light.

I sat in the car and thought. Clock was running with door open. Was not before. Played with controls working left to right. Twirled and pushed and pulled the trip odo control. Dome light came on as normal when I pushed it in slightly. Not logical. Called a friend over to look at lights outside the car. Directionals work, all four. Back ups inop still. Hit the brakes. Dome light instantly turned off, no brake lights. Pushed on odo reset **** again. No dome light. Cannot get the dome light back on at this time. Footwell lights inop at all times.

Likely that something has come loose under the dash, perhaps during shipping. Everything worked correctly when I saw the car personally in November but the backup lights were inop when the car came out of the trailer. Now b/u lights inop as well. No odd smells present but I disco'd the battery just the same. I can't get under the dash with the car in the garage. It snowed today and it will maybe snow tomorrow. But I found an important clue with the brake pedal actuation. I am poring over the '66 wring diagram and I have a '66 chassis manual on the way. Have not looked at the AIM yet.

I will:
1) check all fuses especially the ones for the aftermarket systems
2) Take the aftermarket systems (a/c and aux. fan) out of the picture electrically
3) List everything electrical that works correctly. Seems everything under the hood does, including 4x headlights and 2x pod motors. Pods now are almost in sync.
4) List everything that works incorrectly or intermittently.
5) Start process of elimination, look for common connections for things that do not work as intended. I am hoping there's just a loose common ground.

 

What you have is not hard to fix, but it is almost impossible to tell someone how to fix. Mostly due to the stop/start troubleshooting and getting off on multiple issues. Find one thing that doesn't work (b/u lights, for example) and find how why. turn on key, but car in reverse and measure on the pink wire in the two pin connector (one pink, one green wire) coming out of the firewall near the master cylinder. Do you have 12v on the pink wire? If so, short that pink and green wire together on the side of the connector that goes into the firewall (and not down to the transmission). Do you now have back up lights? If so, the backup light switch is bad or loose, or a wire broken on it. If you don't have 12v on that pink wire coming out of the firewall in that connector, go to the fuse box and check the top fuse (measure on both sides of the fuse) for 12v. Do you have 12v on both sides of that fuse?
That sounds like an unimportant thing to check with all these things not working, but the answer will tell us which way to go next. Doesn't have to be the b/u connector. Open the door and look at the dome light. Is it on? If not, keep watching and push pressure in on the inside connector of that bulkhead connector and wiggle while watching. Does the dome light flicker or come on? Measure on one side of the bulb on the dome light. Do you have 12v? If so, measure on the other side of the dome light. Do you still have 12v? If you do, the ground is not good and may be related to your issues. You have to start at one thing and work to tie in what can cause that. If you don't have 12v on at least one side of the dome light, then the problems may be in the 12v supply side.
Pick one issue and MEASURE whether it's the supply or the ground. The odometer **** has no electrical meaning to any of this. Personally, the first thing I'd do is connect a jumper wire from a KNOWN good ground, like the Z bar and touch it to the metal on the back of the cluster and see if anything changed. That KNOWN good ground is important when reading for voltages with a VOLTMETER where I mentioned because if the meter lead isn't grounded back to the negative lead on the battery through the birdcage and frame, the readings are meaningless. Until you can get access to open the doors, get under the car and do some measuring, your just hoping to get lucky by doing something. That is not a good approach.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. Can't do any of that right now except for pressure on the bulkhead connector, which I already did. Pushed, pulled,side-load pressure as well. No effect on the dome light. Not sure when I will be able to do more. Between getting up at 4:30 in the morning and being done with things by 6 pm on a "normal" weekday I'm spread a little thin. I had to steal time from other things I needed to do today just to pop the battery in.

Never fear, I do know that for example in 1966, the odo reset was purely mechanical I am simply reporting findings and observations and I know that simultaneous events do not prove causation but are suggestive instead. I am not wholly unfamiliar with troubleshooting but my efforts at more involved actions are handicapped by circumstances beyond control at this time.

 

I agree. With the importance of the grounds, especially on Corvettes, and 57+ year old cars, I will often hook a long jumper directly to the negative battery cable, just to make sure the component itself is working.


did you check the dome light bulb itself? I had a similar issue with the under dash courtesy lights on my 67 when I got it…. Sometimes the lights worked with the door, sometimes with the switch, but inconsistent…. Turned out there was an issue with the bulb itself…

 

Hi. No, I did not.

There's a reason and it has to do with how far the door can open in the garage, and how disorientating it is for me to do certain things within the space allowed my body by the restriction of the door being like that.

As a data point, the light switch will not make the interior light work if the door jamb switch does not either. Although the connection at the bulb (and the socket) is something I will check, I have little confidence in the bulb being the culprit. I am curious to see what the ammeter will read when the car is running now, but the surge tank is still out so that's a no-go. I had enough time the other day only to get the new battery in and do a few quick checks. The garage has no heat in addition to being quite small and it's 30* today, I just came home from work and shoveled snow and salted the driveway, so the car isn't getting pulled out for more work today unfortunately. Possible it won't happen for a couple weeks.

I have no concern that it won't be a simple fix...when the issue is ID'd. It's just frustrating that I have a rented garage across town that is MUCH bigger but my other nice car is there.

 

If the car has been restored, its very possible that surfaces that used to be conductive are now painted. Especially the Z bar and the rest of the bird cage. Paint makes lousy grounds and grounds are critical. It cant hurt to identify all grounds, especially those under the dash, and clean paint off surfaces and wire brush clean the fasteners.

 

Restored but not to 100% factory in 2016. Car has been working correctly. Witnessed car working correctly in all ways in November 2022, in person.