If so, my switch is toast.

I need to know before I waste my time at a junkyard for a "new" one.

I checked continuity, and the green and brown seem to be connected in every position of the switch, but the green isn't connected to the red in "park" or "lights" as I thought it should.

THis all came about because my taillights were not working through the switch.

Can someone enlighten me as to how the green and brown get power?

(Search function is down or I would have looked)

Thanks,

Ryan

Sort of late for me. Memory slips. Hope this is right. Brown and dark green are both outputs from the switch. Move the knob around. You will see that they are not really tied together. Brown goes to the tail lights. It also goes to the top of the rheostat. Dark green is the wiper on the rheostat. That feeds the dash lights. Believe it is the orange wire that's the input for these two.

John, thanks for the reply.

Let's get this straight:

Red - always hot - powers "blue" for headlights
Blue - to headlight dimmer switch
White - grounds for interior lights
Orange - fused power to interior lights - (powers green and brown?)
Green - to dash lights
Brown - to taillights.

Can you confirm? Thanks,

Ryan

Sounds about right but no books in front of me to double check that. Since you have your switch out (I think), double check the connections as you pull it on and off. It's very unlikely that the switch contact that connects to the brown is bad. Orange doesn't directly feed the green. Brown is tied to the top of the rheostat (spring thing) in the front of the switch (internally in the switch). The bottom of the rheostat goes nowhere. Green is the movable wiper.
The other connection is ground. The outside of the switch needs to be grounded. As you rotate the knob around, notice how the copper contact touched the frame in the locked position? This contact is the white wire and by grounding it, the dome light comes on.
Best I can do at the moment.

I checked it - you are right. One of my switches WORKS, the other one does not.

Thanks again,

Ryan

Ryan
Before you go to the junk yard, check out the parts usage on AC Delco site for GM 1995179 AC# D1588. They show 4600+ applications (only going back to 66). The latest 96 vans. http://www.acdelco.com/html/index.htm

Rene
66_Malibu

thanks shooter - I'll check out the link