Electrical 76 CJ - do speedo lights have to be installed to work?

[CoachE]

I've just bought this Jeep for my son, and I'm going through all the systems to be sure they work. Right now I'm on electrics. I've got the panel lights (heater, wipers, etc) working, but no luck getting the lights in the speedo, or turn signals to work. I've got new bulbs in them, and the fuse appears to be ok. Do the bulbs need to be installed in the gauge to work? I'm stumped. The wiring has been butchered, but I traced them back to the block and nothing appears broken. Any help is appreciated. I'm new to the forum!

 

[shum8]

Greetings from Va!

As you most likely already know, a CJ’s grounding leave much to be desired. The instrument bulbs rely on the instrument cluster for ground, and the instrument cluster relies on its mounting to the dash for grounding. Hardly ideal. If not running a dedicated ground for all instruments, make sure you’re getting good ground via mounting. See if that fixes the bulb issue [emoji106][emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CoachE]

Thanks - that was my first thought and it makes sense. I'll put in a dedicated ground. I'm seriously considering rewiring the whole thing. Painless makes a 12 circuit set for under 300.00 and that'll probably solve a lot of unseen issues.

 

[mdeluca]

This may sound crazy, but...

"Park & Tail" light fuse provides one of two points of power to the headlight switch. Both the "Park & Tail" fuse and the "ACC LPS" lamp fuse must be working for the dash lights to work.

More info here:
https://jeep-cj.com/community/threads/dash-lights-not-working.58658/#post-528682

This was the case on my '86. Not sure about '76.

 

[hollasboy]

I had to purchase a laminated color wiring diagram (<$20), and used that along with a multimeter to figure out my rat's nest wiring. Any wiring that is original will still have the correct wire color, anything not the correct wire color has been bastardized by the PO...from there I was able to figure out similar problems to yours.

 

[cglax6]

I feel your pain. Wiring is the least fun part of these machines. After pulling the dash and seeing all the wire nuts and duct tape, I decided to pull all of it and start from scratch. I got the full Painless harness with all the terminations. It was pricey, but 100% worth it. I swapped in a 351w with Sniper at the same time, so install went smoothly. The instruction manual that comes with it is worth its weight in gold.

 

[RichChapin]

I feel your pain on the wire system, Im rewiring the complete jeep from scratch and ive ran into issue after issue.
explains
1 the main jeep gauge has the turn high low 4wheel and brake light, the after market one is missing the light hole on the lower side to light up the gauges
2 you cant find the plug that goes threw the fire wall (no one will sale it to you as a kit)
3 the block threw the fire wall is to light(AMP) to handle all the things we add now
just a few of the issues that I've been running into

a pre wire kit will not have the circuit's that i need or want
so i have two fuse boxes mounted into my dash so i can see the fuses
3 fuse relay boxes water tight 2 under hood one box for winch, one box are all the lights on the outside the third box I'm trying to find a place for it it will run the arb air, fuel pump, the lockers, cab power items that draw 15 0r more amps and rear outside lights

foot note its all the changes that we make to are jeeps that makes them are toy......
and
they can be a real money pit of love