68 gauge lighting

[John C.]

I removed my 68 center gauge cluster to have the clock fixed and the radio restored to working condition. I'm now starting to put things back together and have a question on the gauge lights. On my car one of the holes in the cluster for a light was taped over. The corresponding wire and connector for the light is in the harness but it to is taped off as well. Has anyone seen this before? Is it a factory job or an owner inspired change?

John

[Henry J.]

Re: 68 gauge lighting

I think it is an owner-inspired modification.

[Jim T.]

Re: 68 gauge lighting

The hole that is taped over is for the instrument light that illuminates the battery gauge. You can still see the battery gauge at night without this light working if the others are working. The wired light receptacle with the paper in it is missing the bulb. To test if it works with a new bulb the receptacle will have to be grounded hanging like in your picture. Did you find a resistor attached to the back of your gauge panel? My 68 has one. Why a previous owner taped over the light placement hole is only known to her or him.

[John C.]

Re: 68 gauge lighting

Jim

There wasn't a resistor on the back, but there were signs that the center gauge cluster previously been removed. They probably removed it then.

John

[Alan S.]

Re: 68 gauge lighting

Hi John,
I noticed something in the picture of the rear of your gauge cluster.
The 'star' shaped metal retainers for the lamp sockets are already in the holes for the lamps.
I thought the metal retainer was actually part of the plastic lamp socket.
Do your sockets stay in place when inserted? I'd think they would just fall off the retainer.
?
Regards,
Alan

[John C.]

Re: 68 gauge lighting

Alan

That is the way it came apart initially and I've just left it that way. It wasn't designed to work that way however. The retainers are held to the plastic piece through two barbs that you can see in the picture. I tried it and you can put the plastic piece back on metal retainer and it will hold just fine. I'll probably use some glue to help hold them together on final assembly to be sure.

gauge light star.JPG

Looking more careful at the connector they taped off in the day light, I can see that one of the retainer barbs broke off in the plastic. It looks as if they didn't want to deal with fixing the problem and just taped everything off. Oh well, one more thing for me to fix.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

John