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My wife just bought a 1976 Corvette and I'm sorting out a few things on it. I haven't dug into the dash yet, but wanted to get feedback on this before I do.
The gauge backlights appear to be tied to the ignition ON circuit. They come on when the ignition is turned on, and turn off when the ignition is turned off. On my 79 and my 75, those gauge lights are tied to the headlight switch and only come on when the headlight switch is turned to either ON position.
Should I be looking for some bubba wiring when I tear into the dash, or is the gauge light wiring different in 76?
Hi dmv,
The 76 dash lights were originally controlled by the headlight switch in the same way as the 79 and 75 you mention.
Someone has modified the wiring in some way.
Regards,
Alan
Definitely modified by bubba. Although, on the surface, it's not a bad of a mod. There some cars out there that could use this mod, not sure about the Corvette though.
Hi dmv,
The 76 dash lights were originally controlled by the headlight switch in the same way as the 79 and 75 you mention.
Someone has modified the wiring in some way.
Regards,
Alan
Thanks. That's what I thought, but wanted to verify.
I just loooove it when Bubba gets into electrical wiring
Definitely modified by bubba. Although, on the surface, it's not a bad of a mod. There some cars out there that could use this mod, not sure about the Corvette though.
The DeLorean A/C panel operates this way by design. Originally, the AC panel was going to be completely blacked out, so it would need the lights on to see the markings. The production panel was not blacked out, but the wiring stayed.
"wife bought a Corvette".........
<KEEPER> !!!!!!!
Yep! Though, she bought it because she wants to autocross (awesome!) but doesn't want to drive my Corvettes because they're all stick shift (not so awesome lol).
She also owns a DeLorean (and I ended up with one, too), so we each own our favorite car and our spouse's favorite car.
If I had to guess I would say the rheostat portion of the headlight switch was bad and he just bypassed it. Just had to replace mine to get my dash lights to work.
I tested the headlight switch today, and the interior light contact did not have continuity with the power supply when the switch was pulled. So, I ordered a new switch (among other things) and will figure out how to fix the wiring.
Update: I discovered that the Inst Lmp fuse is no good (in addition to the headlight switch not activating the instrument lamps). Instead of fixing the problem, they joined the LMP plug on the fuse panel with the IGN plug. Once I ran some continuity tests, it wasn't too bad to figure out, but there is a spaghetti mess of wires down there lol.
What, if anything, is supposed to be connected to the LMP plug on the fuse panel?
Yep! Though, she bought it because she wants to autocross (awesome!) but doesn't want to drive my Corvettes because they're all stick shift (not so awesome lol).
She also owns a DeLorean (and I ended up with one, too), so we each own our favorite car and our spouse's favorite car.
So....any chance you have a daughter who's into cars?? 😂