1964 Courtesy lights and dash lights issue

S
Last seen
Joined
Apr 25, 2023
Thunderbird Year
1964
Hello,
Have a 1964 Thunderbird that most of the electrical issues have been resolved but still have a weird one after the interior was installed.
So after installing the two courtesy lights in the rear they would stay on all the time with the doors closed. Let me also mention when opening the door the dash lights would turn on which seems strange, but with the headlights on the dash lights worked so I figured okay. I have replaced the map light relay already, hoping this was part of the issue but it was not. The courtesy lights would flicker when turning the headlight switch slightly so it seemed the switch was probably bad. Replaced that and now the courtesy light turn of with the door closed which is great, but now the dash lights do not come on with the headlights.
My question is, are the dash lights supposed to come on with the door open? I have the 1964 wiring diagram and the 1965 and neither shows the courtesy light being connected to the dash light circuit.
Has some one previously jumped the wires under dash to make this error or is it an issue with the circuit breakers?
Thanks for any insight.
 

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Dash lights should not come on with the courtesy lights. It sounds like you probably have a grounding issue. The courtesy lights may be grounding though the dash lights causing them to come on. Unless someone has a wire or two plugged in the wrong spot.
 
Dash lights should not come on with the courtesy lights. It sounds like you probably have a grounding issue. The courtesy lights may be grounding though the dash lights causing them to come on. Unless someone has a wire or two plugged in the wrong spot.
Thanks Harley,
Found a wire connector behind the map light assembly that lit up the dash lights under power so I ended up jumping that to the headlight on wire from the switch.
 
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