on my 74 Swinger, the round red "fasten seat belt" light on the dash panel below the fuel gauge isn't working. Would this have anything to do with the Seatbelt-Ignition Safety Interlock feature being disabled on my car? Or is the bulb probably just burned out?

Also, in the gauge which houses the 'oil/brakes' light, the oil light works, but the 'brakes' light is out.

Is there anything I need to know before dropping the steering column and removing the dash unit to replace the bulbs?

Thanks

Probably so. Count your blessings and just remember to fasten the belts on your own, without the warning lights.
Probably a dead bulb.
Disconnect the battery negative first!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I had a '73 Dart and have recently done a lot of work on a '75 Duster - both used nearly exactly the same cluster - and you don't need to pull the cluster or drop the column to replace a bulb.

The bulbs are in little plastic sockets that fit into the PC board with an 1/8 turn or so. They have little plastic ears that break easily - when they do,the socket makes poor contact with the PC board. When you have the bulb out inspect the socket carefully.

When I replaced bulbs, I just sat in the drivers seat, removed any watches and rings, leaned over and reached up behind the dash and was able to find the sockets by touch and easily removed them - it really wasn't hard.

The US '74s and at least some '75s came with a rather complicated system that was designed not to let you start the car unless the driver's and front passanger's seat belts were fastened. It was a light colored plastic box very roughly 3"x3"x1" with lots of wires running to and from it up near the glove box. Most of the ones I've seen were disabled long ago - some by just chopping off wiring haphazardly.

Thanks for the reply guys. For nostalgia's sake, I wouldn't mind having that "Fasten Seat Belt" light working on the dash - but if it means re-enabling the Seatbelt-Interlock function, obviously I'm not going to do it.

I've not made the effort to switch the bulbs out yet; that said, before I do, does anyone have that light actually working on their car, who doesn't have that SBInterlock feature activated?

Thanks

Evan

I don't think you need to drop the collum to get at the bulbs, thats a bit extreme. I was able to change mine years back by just reaching up under the dash and twisting. maybe I was just lucky in the placement.

Its kind of moot for me now anyway since I got a custom cluster from sick6

-dave

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what part of "illegal" is so confusing???