I have a questions regarding the clock lighting. The clock works fine, all the gauges work and have light, but the clock. I know the wires going to the clock lights are a single lead hot wire, but no ground. Is the clock case the ground? and should there be some sort of ground strap or wire from the clcok case to the dash frame, etc.? I have used a test light grounded to the dash frame and I get power at the socket Yes, I have changed the bulbs....been there already. Any ideas would be helpful.
you are on the right track.:TU: before you get too frustarted ... ....take your bulb to a battery charger (make sure there are no flammables around )and clip the black lead to the outer socket of the bulb and carefully touch the red lead to the terminal on the bulb to make sure your new bulb actually works. here is how most of these old clocks and lights work ... if it is a single (most likely gray) wire to the bulb socket(or sockets) .. the bulb will be grounded once the socket is installed back into the hole... the socket's "fingers" ground to the hole that the socket mounts in which is the metal case of the clock, which is connected to the ground wire from the power/ground plug on the clock... so even if the clock is not grounded through the clock mounting ... it should be grounded through the 2-wire (orange & black) clock power plug. try cleaning up the mounting hole and socket "fingers"with a little steel wool or scotchbrite. if your clock seems to be a different set up than what i am describing ... please fill us all in on the differences.
Thanks for the advice. I played around with it last night and it looks like the plug wires going to the clock itself are isolated from the case via a rubber plug. In the assembly manual it shows a ground strap going from the speedo mounting stud (?) to the clock mounting stud, but says to only use in case of in dash tach option. I think this might be a mis-print? I made a small ground wire and attached it to a lower clock mounting stud and ran it to a place on the dash frame and.... let there be light! Now, I only need to figure out a few more electrical gremlins and, after nearly 15 years, this thing will be back on the road.
