67 deville convertible, cluster is driving me nuts

[TomB]

Getting close to roadworthy. After 30 years being stored  in a gazillion boxes.
BUT....It seems that the cluster and the car don' belong together...two pictures attached, one picture shows a number of hanging lightbulbs ( and the other the cluster that came in the box, but it is my assumption that the lights in the cluster and the black wire and blue connectors should go and I should plug in the "original" bulbs, Correct?
Or is the rebuilt cluster a very clever mod.?

Thanks, Tom

[fishnjim]

Might be a bit tedious but you should be able to track which light goes where from the electrical diagram.   Insulation color and wire ga being your "guides".   There should be a bulb chart in the shop manual too to double check the proper bulb size.
Just the usual when you try to resurrect from boxes without the proper labeling being done.
Over time the "circuit board" type connections degrade and have to be repaired/replaced.  Perhaps that's what they were doing.

[TomB]

Thanks for the tips. But still struggling: do the dangling bulbs in picture 1 have to replace the seemingly improvised sockets (with the improvised black cable and blue connectors) on picture 2?

By the way, the shop and other manuals are pretty useless to find ground cable routings, just the ground icon without wire color indication..

Cheerio, Tom

[J. Gomez]

Getting close to roadworthy. After 30 years being stored  in a gazillion boxes.
BUT....It seems that the cluster and the car don' belong together...two pictures attached, one picture shows a number of hanging lightbulbs ( and the other the cluster that came in the box, but it is my assumption that the lights in the cluster and the black wire and blue connectors should go and I should plug in the "original" bulbs, Correct?
Or is the rebuilt cluster a very clever mod.?

Thanks, Tom

Tom,

There is something odd about your cluster and the wiring hardness with the light sockets. 

Traditionally the type of light sockets (push-in type) you show on the hardness are used on metal clusters/cases for the ground source. Your cluster has the flex copper trace style so the sockets on these are the twist type (as shown on your pictures), all of the connections for the lights, gauges, etc. are made via the plug-in connectors into the cluster.

Standard format the "gray" wire was used for any lights controlled by the headlight rheostat, other color wires would be used for other application (you need to reference the wiring diagram) and sockets with dual wires are insulated so ground and power are via each of the connected wires.

Maybe the sockets on your hardness are for other locations outside from the main cluster e.g. radio, ashtray, etc. not sure on the '67 model.    Maybe someone with a '67 model can chime in provide feedback.

Good luck..!

[V63]

The dangling slender bulb with aluminum (To the right) Goes into the radio top, the bulb with 2 wires is typically an idiot light.

[TomB]

Getting closer, it is obvious now that the improvised rubber sockets and attached black wire is not original. For sure metal sockets and a grey wire should go into the headlight switch. , same with radio and probably climate control switch. Puzzles me why this mod was made. Maybe the cluster was used as a christmas ornament. Or there is no power on the original grey wire. Will check tomorrow.

Thank again all!