[Marshall V. Daut]

The small light bulbs used to illuminate the water temp and oil pressure gauges probably don't draw much current. If the owner wants them to be operated when the ignition key is turned on, the wires will somehow have to be incorporated in the ignition switch head circuit. This would not be a problem with aftermarket switches with contacts exposed on their backsides. Just connect the wires to one of those two terminals. But how would you do this with the original "theft-proof" popout switch? Would you run the wires to the ignition coil terminal post (+), which is where the lone wire from the original switch head is connected?

When the electronic ignition modules first hit the restorer community in the early 1990's, some of us found how the hard way NOT to run accessories such as an electric fuel pump for downdraft carburetors directly to the ignition switch. I fried an expensive module doing that. I don't recall the solution people came up with, but it entailed hooking up such accessories not directly to the switch, but to an intermediary device. My point relating to the topic under discussion here is: Will hooking up those two gauge light wires directly to the switch cause likewise problems, or is the electrical draw too small to mess things up? 'Something for the poster to consider.
Marshall