Slick 60's

I lost my turn signals and brake lights a while back. I lost the dash lights at about the same time I think, just didn't realize it because I wasn't driving it at night. I discovered that if I run a ground wire to the brake light switch on the master cylinder they all work. I understand that all of this stuff probably goes through the turn signal switch (which is ONLY 50 years old). Where would I begin to look for the ground for all of this stuff? Wiring is my arch nemesis, so please bear with me on this mess.

should be a ground to the frame (usually a short battery cable from one of the starter bolts to the frame nearby, theres also one from the engine to the firewall
on the sweep speedometer theres a small ground from the back of the panel to the dash brace.

where did you run the ground to on the brake switch, to one of the posts or to the body

all of the turn sigs and brake lights do run thru the ts switch

dash lights are a separate circuit, could be the dimmer rheostat on the headlight switch and theres a fuse in the fusebox too.

Thanks Ice, that's a wealth of information. With all of the rust I'm dealing with you most likely hit it on the head. I ran a ground wire to the battery post and all works well. Looks like I'll run a new ground strap from the body, to the block and ten to the frame. The headlight switch is fairly new, within the last two years. Could this ground be the problem there?

dash light bulbs ground to the metal part of the panel thru a thin wire on the back
headlights have their own ground wires.

Well, I sure am on a roll! Been a trying day already with the old girl...... and now I notice this......

The lights don't work when I ground the switch as I stated before. Not sure how I confused all of this. They work when I run a POWER wire to the switch.
Now I need to go rethink all of this. I sure will be embarrassed if it's just a bad fuse!

Sorry for all of the input that you gave that was for the wrong information that I posted. It's still great information that I can use eventually I'm sure.

I just went through my wiring and I was in the same boat as you - a wiring novice.

Maybe something here can help you viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33054

Still not 100% sure what mine was, but a tester light or multimeter will be very important. Test Turn signal switch with continuity function on MM by verifying cont between wires that are supposed to have continuity. Unplug battery of course...

I think ultimately my wires in my taillights were grounding out against the housing.