Hoping for a Christmas wiring miracle...

[scouttrooper]

I've seen your first guesses be remarkably "on the mark" so I thought you might have some good gut reactions for me. Here goes...

Friday: '65 with 302 & T5z running beautifully. Electical function at 100%. New voltage regulator in a new 100 Amp one-wire alternator charging as expected. I decide this would be a great time for me to connect the back-up light kit I installed months ago, but had never juiced. Original wiring is already in the loom, but had forgotten precisely where the leads exited the loom under the dash, so I had my paws in there, cluster removed, fishing around for the connectors. They were right above the headlamp switch. I connected them to and through the firewall and have the wires to the transmission ready to be hooked up. However, I was distracted by the little fact that I've lost brake lights and headlights. Brake switch still functioning, and blinkers still light up as designed. No head lights, tail lights or brake lights. Checked fuses both in place and in hand. All have continuity. Ahh, the joy of owning a vintage car!! Whatcha think? Headlight switch gone bad? Knock a ground wire loose? The schematics are not helping much. Thanks, Lance

 

[Tim65GT]

There is some headlight troubleshooting info in this thread:

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=670867

 

[bnickel]

my gut reaction is something definitely got knocked loose. probably a ground but possibly the connectors that provide power and such to those switches. just for grins, try disconnecting the backup lamps and see what happens.

 

[Nemesis67]

Trouble shooting 101:

Q: Did you F with it?

A: Yes - - You dumb sht!
A: No - - Does anyone know?

A: Yes - - You poor bastard!
A: No - - Hide it.

 

[Nemesis67]

Really though, I would retrace your steps. Disconnect the lights you connected and if the problem persists, look for the obvious...
...loose wires or wires that are just hanging out in the open that you may have knocked or pulled out. You could get real deep real fast, so again look for the easy fix before getting crazy with your troubleshooting. You can always jumper the wires that go to the switch to bypass the switch. Then you will know if it is the switch or is it something else.

Never seen it but I guess worst case would be that ALL your bulbs blew!

 

[scouttrooper]

Miracle granted... Thanks guys

Got a 12V test light. While I was imagining the worst, I thought I'd check the most obvious items first. The headlamp switch seemed to be common to all the symptoms, so I pulled the connector that had the power source and got an obvious arc. As you all suspected, I had managed to knock loose the spade connector where the power meets the switch. It was only a millimeter or two, so it appeared to be in the right place. The whole thing took about 60 sec. to find and correct. I'm a little embarrassed that I got so worked up about something so simple. Thanks for the direction guys.

 

[zookeeper]

Just as already posted, when I have a problem I always check the last thing I screwed with and 99.99% of the time, that is the problem. I cause a lot more problems than I've ever solved, but I'm trying to change that.