1968 Barracuda - Where is this bulkhead disconnect?

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Traxfish

Convertible Cruiser
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None of the lights on the left side of the dash in my 1968 Barracuda work. I'd like to check on this bulkhead disconnect(?) in the wiring diagram boxed in red below but I don't know where it is. Anyone able to help? Will I have to tear apart the dash to access it?

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That is plug connector on the left side of the dash. There is a circuit board it plugs into. The lights twist in from behind through that circuit board. Here is Color Factory type drawing and a picture circled in Red of the connector.

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  • 68 Barracuda Factory Wiring REV 2.pdf
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The bulkhead disconnect is on the firewall, under the hood, just to the left of the brake M/C and below it. But it has nothing to do with the dash lights as you describe. 1969383S has you covered.
Do not take any metal tools under there, until you figure out where the ammeter is, and how to stay away from the exposed hot terminals on the back of it. They are live at all times, and if you short one to ground, you will have a major light show.
 
The bulkhead disconnect is on the firewall, under the hood, just to the left of the brake M/C and below it. But it has nothing to do with the dash lights as you describe. 1969383S has you covered.
Do not take any metal tools under there, until you figure out where the ammeter is, and how to stay away from the exposed hot terminals on the back of it. They are live at all times, and if you short one to ground, you will have a major light show.

Good advice! Disconnect the battery first!

It is common that poor ground to chassis from the dash assembly causes these issues. You did say it was just the left side so maybe just some failed bulbs. Certainly so if the high beam and left turn indicator are working as they are fed on the same connector.
 
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The bulkhead disconnect is on the firewall, under the hood, just to the left of the brake M/C and below it. But it has nothing to do with the dash lights as you describe. 1969383S has you covered.
Do not take any metal tools under there, until you figure out where the ammeter is, and how to stay away from the exposed hot terminals on the back of it. They are live at all times, and if you short one to ground, you will have a major light show.

The high beam and left turn signal lamps are NOT working, and the speedometer and the left side of the clock do not light up. A ground somewhere is a likely issue, so I'm glad you said something. This car has a lot of electrical problems and I just don't have a lot of experience with fixing electrical systems in cars.

Speaking of which, the contact in the left reverse lamp socket is missing and the wire to it is disconnected. I just bought one of the Dorman universals and swapped the internal components with the existing socket and tried it. Long story short the reverse lamps, brake lights, parking lamps, and the other dash lamps stopped working and sure enough I blew the 20A fuse. I'm guessing I have a short to track down.
 
Dorman Universal? Slow down and take some time to review.
 
Dorman Universal? Slow down and take some time to review.
I'm afraid I'm not following. I'm just missing the wire and contact for the original and as far as I can tell just swapping the wire and plastic insulator from the universal and putting it in the original would work fine. How is that incorrect?

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Sorry, reverse lamp is single pole. Being a 69 guy mostly I jump when I should not. Never actually seen how the 68 housing reverse lamp is connected. You now have a good set of color 68 drawings so hope that helps you.
 
Sorry, reverse lamp is single pole. Being a 69 guy mostly I jump when I should not. Never actually seen how the 68 housing reverse lamp is connected. You now have a good set of color 68 drawings so hope that helps you.
Yeah one of the first things I did was download the 1968 Plymouth Service Manual and it's helped a lot. I underestimated how many problems this car will throw at me. Still drives like a champ though!
I'd imagine the 68 and 69 are wired the same, just the physical locations are different as the tail lights were redesigned.

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That is what my drawings are based on,the FSM. I just joined the two dash sheets and provided color. If you know PDF files well you can control the “layers” with the eyeball symbol and turn circuits on and off in the PDF to unclutter things for you. They were created in Autocad then converted to PDF.
 
The layers for the circuits may not be the best or missing a piece, but have asked for feedback before and no responses to modify. I have sets for 67-69.
 
I don't know what might have went wrong with your reverse lamp socket repair. It looks straight forward enough.
I can tell you that both inst' panel circuit boards are chassis grounded through their mounting screws into the same single inst' housing and dash. So if one side has ground and works the other side does too. All 4 lamps burned out at the same time isn't likely but... who knows. To have broken contact pins at this circuit board is more common but even then, all 3 contact pins broken is rare. I'm going to guess that connector is off, left off in a previous service.
Even if you removed the drivers seat and the headlight switch, and removed the one screw holding the fuse box in place, and set the fuse box and that wiring out of your way so you could get a hand up in there... the connector doesn't have a key or guide of any sort. I wont say can't 'cause cant never could. I haven't tried to access this connector any other way than pulling the inst' panel out of the dash and tilting it face down. AAAAand that "tilt" goes back to the broken pins. This connector and the upper pin are too close to the top of the panel. Tilting is how bent/broken happens. The service manual says to pull panel outward and tilt it. It doesn't say how far outward before tilting.
 
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And if you do that on a rally dash you outta disconnect the battery first cuz it's real easy to short the ammeter studs. Also dropping the column is pretty easy, and that makes the job a lot easier. I have popped those connectors from underneath, and its a whole bunch easier if you remove the seat first.
 
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