Jiggle the handbrake light and it all goes dark?

I went for an evening drive last week; all systems were GO and then... I drove over some railroad tracks and my instrument lights flickered briefly and then turned off. Interesting... After some creative jiggling of things that fell close to hand (while driving in a darkened car), I noticed that wiggling the little festoon bulb built into the handbrake caused the instrument lights to flicker back on. I finally got them to stay on for a few blocks; and then I hit a pothole and they went dark again.

Twiddling with it since has revealed that the bulb itself works fine, and the connection seems reasonably tight. Sometimes when you turn the lights on, the instrument illumination comes on a second or two, then flickers back to darkness. According to the wiring diagram in the owner's manual, there is a separate fuse for the instrument lighting circuit somewhere between the handbrake lever light and the clock, but I haven't torn apart the console yet to find it.

Before I dive in and re-invent the wheel to fix this, has anybody else here experienced the same problem? And where IS that extra fuse?

 

Fiddle with the fuses first - very narrow and dodgy contacts. Turn your park lights on in a darkened garage and fiddle with the fuse - I bet you'll reproduce the symptoms. Then clean and bend in the contacts to get better spring pressure

 

Where is the extra fuse anyway? Its not in the handle itself as far as I can see, and if it supposed to be in the little plastic fuse-holder behind the clock, someone replaced mine with a spade connector at some point. (That'll stop that pesky fuse from blowing!) Personally, I can't believe the entire instrument and console light circuit is wired in series... Wait a minute. Actually, no; on second thought, I'm not surprised at all. Of course it's wired in series. Less wiring wiring = less weight. Super-leggero! Never mind what happens when some little festoon bulb along the way wiggles funny while your driving at night...

 

If your bulb in the brake handle is jarred and touches the sides, it will cause a short and blow your fuse and maybe the bulb also (it happened to me). You didnt specify what car you have, but my fuses are in front of the passenger seat under the dashboard...you will find your burnt fuse in there...

 

I was thinking this might be a ground issue, as in the lamp holder (basically a bend piece of metal) isn't holding a solid ground to the chassis. I'm managed to get it to illuminate briefly by touching it to the gear shift lever, the top of the parking brake lever, etc, but the key is BRIEFLY. As is once, maybe twice, and then it stops working completely. Non-repeatable phenomena make poor decision points in a trouble-shooting tree. My voltmeter seems to be getting solid voltage at the bulb socket, but I am not discounting the possibility that the problem lies there, since my probe may be seating better than the bulb is. Still though, the design appears such that even with no bulb installed, the lighting circuit can find ground. Can someone confirm this?

 

Read my post!

 

I know this is an old post - but I recently had to find and replace the separate fuse associated with the handbrake light. (embedded in the handbrake lever) & thought I would share what I found. Per the 308 QV electronics manual/schematic (I have a 83 308 QV) there is indeed a separate fuse. It can be found under the center console, near the handbrake mount. (a pain to get to) The fuse is in a black, screw together fuse holder. The fuse itself is 3amp and about 1/2" long. The manual says 8amp but for a 12V 3W bulb - a 3amp fuse is appropriate, and does not cause a conflict with the main panel 8amp fuse.