I started a thread about my gas gauge not working. Somewhere along the line of checking this/fixing that, it began to work. Now here is the confusing part: My dash lights were working intermitidly, the switch would have to be turned to the right position,and the lights would come on, including one on the gauges. Then a short time later all of the gauge lights came on. Now all of the interior lights are off and I can't figure out why. Here is a link to the other thread, with pictures of the lights when they were working: https://firstgenfirebird.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=248290&page=2

Has anybody else had this problem? I really wanna get this fixed. Thanks!

Wiggle the headlight switch shaft. Could be a bad reostat on an old headlight switch.

Uh...what is a reostat? And is there anyway to test if this is in fact my problem?

You are making me do something I have not done in a long time - read my Owners Manual.

The headlight switch knob moves out two positions to turn on the exterior lights. You should get dash lights at either position

The knob also rotates. That rotation controls a reostat or dimmer switch.

The Owner's Manual says rotating the headlight switch all the way counter-clockwise turns on the interior (dome) lights. Rotating the switch all the way clockwise turns off the dashboard lights.

If the reostat in the switch is bad, it will be one reason you will get intermittent lights.The reostat has a bunch of fine wire windings on it. If they are messed up in places, you will get intermittent electrical contact.

Oh this little guy? The coils look great to me.

OK, there is probably a way of testing the switch to make sure - but you're beyond the simple things I could think of.

It's at this point I would probably be on the phone to my brother - who happens to be an electrical tech.

Hopefully somebody like that will chime in here.

I can suggest some basics like I did. If you have removed the cluster and you have a handy 12V battery - you can do some checking.

After I refurbished my instrument cluster - I wanted to test the lights. So I traced the paths of the circuit board on the back of the cluster until I found the two copper strips that run to every cluster bulb. Then I connected a motorcycle battery to leads and energized that copper circuit.

My testing showed I needed to paint the inside of the metal can a brighter color so I could get brighter lights at night