[Marshall V. Daut]

I returned the car to its owner this morning so that he can drive it for a couple weeks before Round Two of repairs starts. I managed to fix the steering and ball joint issues, as well as a couple other problems. The owner tells me the extra toggle switch on the bottom lip of the dash panel (barely visible beneath the instrument panel lights on/off switch in the photo) was installed by the same idiot local "repair" shop that royally screwed up his brake system. The wiring under the dash and in the engine compartment looks like something Helen Keller would have done - on a bad day for her. What a rat's nest of wires with no rhyme nor reason where they go or what they are supposed to do. They added this toggle switch to turn the fuel pump on and off. I discovered this accidentally when troubleshooting the dash wiring, looking for a reason why the instrument lights would not come on. I had flipped this switch and noticed nothing had changed. Well, when I went to start the car, it wouldn't. Starter fluid got it going for a couple seconds and then the engine died. Flipping the toggle switch again while panicking, the pump started, and so did the engine. Mystery solved. That toggle switch was installed three years ago. Why the shop thought a separate switch to turn on the fuel pump was needed is a mystery to me. Isn't the pump supposed to automatically turn on when the ignition toggle is switched to the "on" position?
I traced the two wires from the instrument panel to where they were spliced with a new, green plastic wire. This wire runs down into the light switch and is plugged into one of the cloth covered wires, next to the headlight connections. The original on/off pull switch has wires running to the white knob at the top of the dash panel (just above the throttle knob in the photo) that has a million wires and a fuse connected to it. I think the shop must have added this, too. But to what end? Since the two instrument panel wires run directly to the bail, shouldn't they automatically turn on when the headlights or parking lights are turned on? The switch to control the original on or off feature apparently isn't connected in-line. But the dash lights do not turn on. I'll struggle with this problem when I get the car back in a couple weeks. 'Kind of frustrating, though, especially in this heat.
The choke pull lever just sits in the dash hole because the threaded portion on the back side is missing. I assume someone over-tightened it and broke it off the base. Is this mounting part behind the dash panel being remade? What would I call it to advertise for one?
Marshall