Instrument panel problem on BMC 1.5 Thornycroft diesel

[galeus]

Apologies if you have already seen this in PBO but no response.

galeus​

I have had an intermittent problem with my dashboard panel for a year or two and this year I decided that I would change the panel light pull switch as to clean up the wires behind it you need to remove it and I suspected my fault lay there. I had broken the bakelite knob on the switch whilst removing it but it still functioned. So I put the new switch on when it arrived and turned the Ignition key, but alas no ign.light and no dashboard light. I have been looking at this for hours now and cannot make any sense of it. As far as I can see I appear to have no live to the dashboard, though I'm not certain where I should find it. The starter switch still operates the starter motor. There are a lot of wires behind the boxing in beneath the dashboard which would give a lot of people nightmares, but I think they are sound and I can trace most of them.
I have found one loose live wire, that I can't i/d (it has an insulated shroud on it) and is not really in the area I would expect and I can't see anywhere that needs it.
Am I missing an obvious point . I have checked the fuse on the dashboard. Be kind

 

[Rappey]

I looked at a boat the other day where the whole dashboard was dead. Turned out there was a broken positive feed that was connected to the +ve terminal of the starter motor/alternator.

 

[galeus]

Problem solved- it was the loose wire that was the problem

 

[Rappey]

Problem solved- it was the loose wire that was the problem

Its always a great result when you can fix something yourself without any cost