Electrical: Instrument light switch

[salmonstude]

I'm rewiring my 1955 C3. The instrument light switch has 5 terminals. The wiring diagram shows only two wires going to the switch. Can this be? Five terminals and only two terminals used?

[dpson]

I just looked at an NOS 536218 instrument light switch and it has 5 plug in style terminals, so it sounds like you have the correct switch. I can't answer why there are five.

[jrlemke]

Could the switch be used in other applications? How about fog lights or back-up lights? Just guessing! -Jim

[salmonstude]

I don't think it can be for the foglight. The headlight switch has a terminal for the foglight. It's possible the switch made by Indak was made for other car makes also.

[rkapteyn]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Studebaker-536218-Instrument-Light-Switch-Early-Sedan-C-K-1955-Cars-NOS-/111955982743?hash=item1a1118b997:g:aw0AAOSwoydWpA00&vxp=mtr

That switch only has three terminals

Robert Kapteyn

[altair]

This may be a little far out, but it might have been for export. On the early Euorpean roads it was required that you had to have the inside tail lights only on when parked on some of the narrow roads. I had owned an early Mercedes that had a four position dash light switch, on, off, left rear and right rear. FWIW

[StudeRich]

The reason the main Wiring Harness Diagram only shows the Power coming in from the Headlight Switch and the Dimmed or not, power going out to the Instruments is that some of the equipment was an Option, the Cigar Lighter Light and other options.

Did you test them all to find out if some are always Hot?
If they are not Dimmer controlled, but Hot when the Headlight Switch is on they could feed more options that could not be accommodated by the Headlight Switch, like Underhood Light, Trunk Light, Glove Box Light etc.