1954 Lincoln Lighting Circuit

[rex]

Gang,

Good Morning! About a week ago I lost all rear lights on my '54 Capri. I noticed that they pulsed on and off with the dash lights. After pulling and pushing a bit under the dash, I had no lights of any kind except head lights--no parking, stop, turn lights. I can hear a circuit breaker tripping every few seconds under the dash, but I cannot locate it. The wiring diagram in the shop manual is not helpful. The breaker seems to be in the center of the dash area and not in the headlight switch. Can anyone help me with a diagram or information about the location of the breaker. I can only stay under the dash so long due to my age! Thanks Rex

[Lee]

You might try PM’ing Tom O’Donnell (Tomo). I’m sure he’ll be your best resource on this forum.

[rex]

Thanks, I'll reach out to him.

Rex

[tomo]

It sounds like you have a short. The wires to the tail lights are routed under the step plates at the doors on my 53, the 54 may be the same. After years of stepping on them, one or more wires may have lost some insulation.

On my car, the CBs are located on the left side of the instrument cluster. It is almost impossible to see, as all of the wires from the lights and engine bay are there.

[rex]

Thanks for writing back. I hope I can get to the bottom of this, as you cannot see the circuit breaker at all. No power is going through the headlight switch for anything but actual headlights. I am trying a new switch to see if this corrects the problem. Thanks for writing. Rex

[rex]

Thanks to everyone for helping me. The turn signal relay had a blown fuse--wiring manual give no indication of where fuse/circuit breaker is located, but TOMO helped a lot there. There are two fuses on the headlight circuit breaker that is on the left side of the dash. One operates the turn signals, but I am not sure what the lower fuse does? Neither are easily seen.

My headlight switch was bad which caused the loss of rear lights; new switch fixed that. I think I blew the turn signal fuse checking this out.

Thanks to all who helped! Rex

[TonyC]

Good stuff; very glad you got all the help you needed.

---Tony