Warning lamp on dash staying on

[--Rebel--]

Hi all,

We have a '68 Charger with a standard dash. The lightbulbs in the dashboard are all in the wrong sockets, I know I can work out which one goes where through a process of elimination but, at the moment one of them is staying on all the time. When I turn the ignition on it comes on and stays on, when I start the engine it stays on, it only goes out when the key is removed from the ignition. The bulb itself is currently in the right hand turn signal warning light socket, and the right hand turn signal warning light is in the red high beam warning light socket in the speedo. I'm guessing that the two just need swapping over, but I need to know why the bulb is coming on and staying on?

All the headlights work properly, the floor switch works properly and all wires are correctly attached from what I can see, as well as all the earths being ok from what I can see to.

Are there any other warning lights that I'm over looking? is it safe to drive with this lamp on all the time or will it generate enough heat to start a fire behind the dash?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer

[elacruze]

Could be the parking brake warning lamp, if the circuit is grounded somewhere or the switch is not properly engaging the pedal (or your parking brake is set)

[tan top]

Could be the parking brake warning lamp, if the circuit is grounded somewhere or the switch is not properly engaging the pedal (or your parking brake is set)

 could be !!

 what colour wire  is going to the bulb holder thats on all the time ?? , if it is the parking brake warning/ brake pressure lamp  will have two wires  blue & black  , the high beam  wire is red & the turn signals are light green left   & tan right  ,   orange is for the  instrument lamps !!
has it only just started doing this ??  have you done anything to the car ??  ,  
if all the wiring checks out ok  , check the two headlamp harness groung wires  the go to the core support &  the front turn signal housings are grounded ok on shiny metal , instrument cluster grounded to the dash frame properly !!

   

[resq302]

I just had this issue with my 69 charger and the distribution block where the master cyl. lines go into and then get distributed to each of the wheels went bad internally.  Luckily I had a spare and changed it out which was the problem but prior to doing this, I unplugged the wire at the safety switch on the distribution block to see if the light would go out or if it stayed on.  If it stays on, then you have a short somewhere in that wire causing the dash light to stay on.  If it goes off, it could be an internally leaking distribution block OR you could have an issue with unequal pressure in your brake system.  This happened to me last year coming home from Carlisle.  My light would come on and then go off if it sat overnight.  The issue was my master cylinder was bypassing internally and taking the fluid from the front reservoir and adding it to the rear reservoir.  The switch did its job and let me know there was a problem.  I removed some of the fluid from the one reservoir so it would not overflow and just took it easy on the brakes making the trip home.  Luckily, there was no one on the road at 4:30 AM coming home from Carlisle!  Well except for the PA state trooper that pulled out and was riding along side of me for that short time.   

[--Rebel--]

Hey y'all, thanks for all the advice. Turned out to be the brake warning lamp after all. I've checked all the connections and wiring as well as topping up the master cylinder a little, all is ok now.

Thanks again