Hi all,
I have just replaced the speedometer in my 1967 Camaro. After putting everything back together, the gauge lights aren't coming on and the car won't even start! I have after-market electronic ignition and I've checked the fuse and have put in all new bulbs. I've obviously done something wrong in putting things back together, but not sure what. Can anybody help me out?

 

your gona have to check it out for any wires that may have been pulled lose or pinched to ground. check your outputs on the igniton switch to see if you get power to the ignition from the switch, pink wire i think. this needs to be in the 1st gen section, ill see if i can get a mod to move it. lol. you can post pictures if you use a photobucket account. copy the img code to your post and pic will show.

 

The only wire I can think of that would be connected to you dash and could cause the car not to start is the tach wire. If it got shorted that car would crank but not start. This is easy to test. There are two wires going to the negative side of the coil. One goes to the distibutor the other goes to the tach. Disconnect the one going to the tach. Do you still have points? This short could have also fried the points.

You should post this over the the 1st gen section.

 

i moved the thread for you. i think you will get more traffic in this section.

thanks craby

 

That's all you can do is retrace your steps. Did you remove the whole gauge cluster to replace the speedo, or just the speedo itself?
Do all your other lights and accessories still work?
Check to make sure the plug didn't get pulled out of the back of the headlight switch, although that wouldn't be related to the non-starting. You could have done two things to it though. Also, since the ignition switch is in the dash, check that too to make sure it didn't come undone, broke a wire, etc.

 

Thanks guys! I'm going to go back in, take everything apart and check all my wires (broken, pinched, undone, etc.) I have to at least get it started !

 

Thanks guys!
I found out why the car wouldn't start: I had pinched the wires on the column mounted tach. The car now starts and the radio, tach and headlights are all working. The gauge lights STILL don't work. There is one green wire that is just hanging, not connected to anything, coming out of a bigger wiring harness. I don't know much about electricity in cars and I don't have any electrical tools. Could this be a ground wire I disconnected by mistake? Should I try connecting it to the dash or firewall and see what happens? Don't want to 'blow anything up'!!

 

I don't recommend trying to short it. Green doesnt always mean ground. Could you take a picture of the wiring harness?

 

There are 2 wires labeled 20 DG in the 1968 chevy service manual that comes from the fuse panel. The number is the guage wire, and there is no color key on the drawing but there are only 2 with the letter g. GY and DG, I interpret them as grey and dark green (my wiring harness is currently 42 years old and balled up in a box in the garage). One DG goes to the lighting switch, the other goes to both the ignition switch and an unlabeled terminal block. Oops there is an LG it goes to the Hi beam indicator lamp.

 

Thanks for your help, guys! Turns out I put the wiring harness that goes into the gauge cluster back in upside down. So, of course, I blew a few fuses! Replaced the fuses, put the harness back in right (on newer cars this would not have happened as these harnesses can only go back in ONE way!) and everything is working again. I have no idea where that green wire goes- its just sitting there, not connected to anything but, as I said before, everything now works so I'm not going to worry about it! ;>