Came home one night and noticed the sail panel lights on my ‘67 Wildcat 2dr were on. Looked inside and the console lights that light up the floor were also on but very dim. Open the door and the sail panel lights go off and the console lights come on all the way. I also have no headlights, instrument lights or taillights. Car starts right up and runs fine. Never had any issues with lights. Replaced the headlight switch and no change. Pulled the door plungers and they seem to be functional. Any ideas? Ground? Hi Lo Beam Switch?
That sounds like a ground issue. The courtesy lights typically share common orange wire from the fuse box and the headlight switch is one "ground source" (when switched to the interior light position, it provides ground. The other ground is provided when the door(s) open and the door switch closes (makes contact. the door switches are "open", no ground path, when the doors are closed). You can bypass the door switch, by pulling the terminal from the back of the switch, usually from up under the dash near the door hinge, to test them, one at a time. Another thing is to check the courtesy light receptacles to make sure they are well grounded. The under dash lights bulb sockets fit in a metal ring attached to the dash, and they can become poorly connected and cause the lights to act oddly, and come on with doors closed and light switch in the "normal" (interior lights off) position. Check ans see it the headlight switch has the ground ring (washer with flat spade terminal sticking off one side) that the ground wire connect to. (I am not sure about the 67 Wildcat dash, cluster and lighting and if things are grounded by their contact with the dash/cowl, or if they have ground provisions like the later cars.)
I appreciate the input, I likely will not have time to work on it until the weekend. Battery is disconnected in the meantime.
