I bought a 68 that has been redone with a ZZ4 crate motor. I need some help for you all, I replaced the stock dash with an Auto Meter setup and have a small problem...my dash lights don't work. I wired them together in parrallel ( all the positives together and all the negatives together) and connected the negatives to the ground for the old panel and the postives to the gray wire (pin3) on the original wiring plug. I found a blown fuse for the instrument lamps and replaced it but it will not hold. I pulled the dash and unplugged all of the positive leads from each gauge at the same time and the fuse still blows. I figured it must be in the light switch on the dash so I pulled it out. Sure enough the resistor wire under the sweeper arm was broken (or burned) at the first wind from the rivet so I assume it was shorting out. I got a new switch and as soon as I plugged it in, the ceramic part got really hot within 5 seconds. I unplugged it right away to save the switch. This time the fuse held, but I don't know why the switch is getting hot. Any ideas out there?? Do I need to unplug all the gauges again to see if it still gets hot?

 

sounds like you have a serious ground fault somewhere and it's feeding back through

 

Somewhere, your hot leads are making contact with metal, whether it be a ground wire or just metal itself. BE CAREFUL! That kind of problem could meltdown your entire dash. Go through the directions for the gauges once again. Test you hot and ground wires with a meter.