Dash Harness Power question

[Travis Blake]

Hey gang,

Put in a new dash, rear and engine harness,  in my 74 chally and for some reason I am not getting power to the dash. This might be a silly question, but is there a specific wire powering the dash? Or is it powered by the harness itself? When we put the new one in, we did one wire at a time as we took the old harness off.

I have no dash lights (replaced all bulbs) no guages, but everything else under the hood works, the dome light works rear lights and sidemarkers work.

Any ideas?

[crackedback]

Is the instrument panel installed?   Power is pulled from the alternator side of the charge circuit.   There is a welded splice after the big black wire enters the passenger compartment that power is branched from.

When engine is off, power for the instruments runs from the battery through your red wire attached at your starter relay, through bulkhead.  If the ammeter is not connected, big red and black wires, power can't reach the welded splice on your black wire.

You could make an alligator jumper from starter relay over to the alt charge stud to see if things change, verifying the ammeter disconnected being the cause.

[CudamanTom]

I would check the ground. If anything, make a ground strap from the frame of the dash to the body to confirm it's not a ground issue.

[Travis Blake]

Both good pieces of advice. I'll be trying them today.

Thank you both.