Hi I am new to TC, I am also new to old muscle cars. I recently bought a 1970 SS 396 Chevelle. It needs some TLC but is in good to fair shape. My question is ,my interior lights and my dash lights dont work, I noticed that I am missing some bulbs, so I am working on getting new ones, But does the dash have indvidual lights for each area i.e. the Tach has a bulb and the clock has a bulb etc.? or is there just one light source for the whole dash? And do I have to remove the complete dash to replace the bulbs?
Thanks for any help I can get.:D

Welcome dadeo70396. There are usually more than one bulb in a dash. You cna usually reach them from under the dash. You might want to invest in a shop manual for your car, they run about 20 bucks and there are a lot of sources. They are a great source of information for routine and not so routine service and adjustments. A factory assembly manual is also helpful. You want to learn all the little particulars of the car.

You also need to go back and delete your duplicate posts.

You'll find a lot of great people and lots of information here.

Sounds like a great car. I think those of us in California are fortunate that we don't have to deal as much with the massive body and frame rust our friends back east and north do.

I replaced several of the bulbs in my dash a few months ago. I'm assuming that we have the same dash since you have a 70 SS car. With the top off of the dash and looking down through the windshield I could see most of them. Like the previous suggestion you would be well served to buy a repair manual. As I'm sure you know they are cheap and available at most of the large chain autoparts stores. Enjoy that SS!

If memory serves, my 69 had like 23 bulbs in total.. I know on my car it's ALOT easier to at least loosten the gauge cluster for access to the bulbs..

But if none of yours are working it might just be a bad fuse, have you checked them out??

Thanks for all your suggestions I will be going out to get a good manual this weekend, and start to get better aquainted with the dash .

True Connection in Riverside has the manuels you need. The are near 15 & 91 frwy. they are open on Saturdays or at least part of the day.

Check the fuse and if none of the individual lights (assuming your printed circuit is good!) work you may have a bad ground. I believe the ground for the dash lights is via the headlight switch. It has a round washer-like connector that goes between the switch and the dash and is pulled snug when the switch bezel is tightened from the front of the dash. That connector is connected via wire to a metal plate connected to the wiper switch. It's easy to test light the headlight switch ground with the dash pad off. If that is the problem, it may be the problem for your interior light as well.

The other thing to check on the interior light are the switches in the door jambs. You might unscrew them and clean up the threads and re-install them.

I gave my door switches a small shot of wd40 and it brought them back to life.

Thanks for the tips I am going to try them this weekend and I will let you guys know how it works out.

There should be 13 light bulbs in the back of a 1970 gauge cluster, plus one for the heater and one for the glove box. Replace your headlight switch in your dash, The dimmer goes bad and you get no dash lights. Also, check to make sure your dash has all its ground wires hooked up.

Hi ,its been about a week since I asked for help with my dash lights, I got aq lot of great suggestions, which all were good tips. It ended up being my dimmer switch was no good, got a new one and everything works. I would not of even thought to check that.Thanks again for all the great tips. I am sure I will be back for more help.