64: BULB FINALLY INSTALLED BUT CLOCK, GAUGE LIGHT AND RADIO DO NOT ILLUMINATE

[Norman Silverman]

HELLO ALL

So, after 4 hours work to remove and replace the bulb behind the "defrost" on the HVAC panel, the same bulbs that started me doing this are still out-even though I replaced all three of them. Those are the clock, the gague illumination and the radio. The gauges themselves work, and I tested each new bulb before I put it in and all worked perfectly. But it seems there's no power to these sockets. Does this ring a bell to anyone? Is there a common connection point where the wires for these three items meet?

Note: I replaced all the illumination bulbs with LEDs but that should not make a difference, all the other bulbs work- plus I did the same swap out in my 64 and 66 Imperials with nearly twice the illumination bulbs in each dash,  and every bulb worked afterwards. 

Stumped and injured (arms all cut up from removing and replacing that bulb on the HVAC control panel.)

Norm

[Norman Silverman]

Dennis

Thank you for your encouragement and input

Norm

[Jason Edge]

When you have several items suddenly go out I would always check a fuse. I saw this yesterday but was on the road and thought the Instruments & Back Up Light fuse might be the cause and never got back to it. If no fuse was blown and you just had/have lights dimming that seems like a grounding or connection issue between the bulb and fixture base, either on the hot volt tip or where it "touches" the side of the fixture. Dealing with old original park, tail and other lights I have sometimes found the sides of the bulbs simply not digging into the the metal of the fixture base and bent the fixture sides inward to make sure it has a tight fit and you have solid metal to metal grounding.  On the dash, that dash is ground to the car body in many places and there is not way you would not have any ground across the entire dash to body. Just not sure of your problem with the LEDs, but something doesn't seem to be making good contact.