I got off work today, and it was dark, so I got in my 87 Camaro and started it up. When I turned the headlights on, the dash lights failed to come on. I laso noticed that my voltmeter read about 9-10 volts. The car started fine, no slow cranking and all of my lights (except the dash lights) were as bright as usual. I drove home, and started the car several times. It never cranked slow, and always fired right up. The headlights didn't dim any more than usual (barely noticeable) while cranking, and it started fine every time. I checked my fuse panel, and the connections at the alternator and battery, and they all looked fine. I'm stumped, cause it all worked fine on the way to work only 3 hours before.

Not sure if this is related, but a few days ago I noticed my dash lights were always on, even if the headlights were off. I'm thinking my headlight switch is bad, but would that cause my voltmeter to read 9ish?

Thanks for any help!

 

battery or alternator might be shot if you can't get enough voltage or something taking too much juice. Pull the gauges fuse and see what happens, there might be something going on there.

The headlight switch seems to be really...weird. Its probably bad.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I fixed it a couple of days ago. It was the alternator. Still no dash lights, but I think that's just the switch being bad. Not too much of a problem yet.