According to my 81 Workshop manual Courtesy Lights are fed from CLK CTSY fuse, which directly feeds +12 to one side of each of the lamps (on orange wires). Other sides of lamps are then commoned (white wires) and go back to Light Delay Timer (white wire). The light delay timer is located in the instrument panel harness behind the glove box, so may have been bumped/disconnected during dash in/out ?

Note that the common (white) sides of the lamps also goes direct to the light switch, which will also operate the lights (as it appears to be doing OK from your description.) Best bet seems to be something unplugged at or on its way to the timer in the white wires department. Hope this helps ! Chris D.

The plot gets thicker. On a whim I ck the CTSY fuse and saw that it was blown. When I replaced it the CTSY lights came on. I thought great problem solved. No, the engine light and battery light on the console came on and would not go off. Then I started the engine to see if they would turn off. They did but when I turn the key off the engine kept on running. WTF is all I could say. What problem do I have.

Suggest first you check all fuses.

The Courtesy light delay timer also gets a power feed
from the Gages fuse (presumably to power it). The Gages
fuse and downstream witing is live only with the ignition switch turned on according to the wiring diagram. The gages fuse feeds lots of things, including the gauges (funny that!)

So the next thing I would be checking (with a multimeter
or test lamp) is that the gages fuse only has +12V to it when the ignition is on, and with ignition off no longer has +12v to it.

rough diagram for you...

+12V--------->[Ign Switch]------>|---->[gages fuse]---->
                                    |
                                    V
                             [to distributor]


...so Ign Sw off should remove power to distributor and to gages fuse - and engine stops etc.

Hope this helps !
Chris

I found out what the problem was. There is a ground wire that connects to the glove light if that is not connected it shorts out the whole system. So every things works in side the car now.