Dome light problems

[truckin 79]

My dome light in 79 did not work and that has bugged me for a while now. Well I took door jamb switches out and cleaned rust off and used electrical spray, no change. I ordered some door jamb switches but were the wrong size. The thread pattern was to fine but when it contacted metal the courtesy light came on. So I ordered correct door jamb switches and now courtesy light comes on when doors are open but still no dome light. I close the doors and walk away and then the wife noticed the dome light was flickering not fully on just redish across bulb. So am I correct thinking the wiring to dome light originates on drivers side of truck and that is where I should start to look for a short?

[kglowacky]

yes dome light consist of two wires. They run on the drivers side between the seat and the door under the carpet. There is a connection plug where the wire heads from the floor to the roof in the drivers side rear corner. The orange wire is the hot wire. It remains hot all the time even when the truck is not running. The white wire is the ground. It turns your dome on by connecting to a ground. either by the light switch or door switches. start chasing the wires for broken wire. Do you get dome light when you turn the headlight switch all the way to the left? Does your battery run down if the truck sits. If your wife sees a low dim dome light you have a short somewhere in that white wire that is giving it a poor ground. Hope this helps.

[Axle]

Dome light work if you turn it on with the headlight switch?

[truckin 79]

No it does not just the courtesy light

[TKCR]

Check the dome light itself too, the bulb or the connector maybe bad. I had that on both my dome light and rear cargo light. I ended up replacing both lights and the wiring that runs down the B-pillar. I’m glad I did, because the wiring was all dry rotted.

[kglowacky]

either the socket or the ground wire is broken

[Pontiac1976]

As said byTKCR:

Check the dome light itself too, the bulb or the connector maybe bad. I had that on both my dome light and rear cargo light. I ended up replacing both lights and the wiring that runs down the B-pillar. IÂ’m glad I did, because the wiring was all dry rotted.

The wiring harness in the B-Pillar is a two part orange & white wires.(right @ the seat belt hole is where the upper section of wiring harness is) The biggest thing to help is Led bulb Dome and or the Cargo as the reg. light bulb run very hot there over heat the wiring over time. I never seen any that where not starting to show dry-rot or over heating. there not a lot of air space up there. Oh if you taking out the wire put it back in with some electric tape spun around every 3" at the top to keep the wire off the hot metal. All so check the high beam foot switch some time can be shorting 73-80. The head light rotating part of the switch not to common.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by Pontiac1976

As said byTKCR: The wiring harness in the B-Pillar is a two part orange & white wires.(right @ the seat belt hole is where the upper section of wiring harness is) The biggest thing to help is Led bulb Dome and or the Cargo as the reg. light bulb run very hot there over heat the wiring over time. I never seen any that where not starting to show dry-rot or over heating. there not a lot of air space up there. Oh if you taking out the wire put it back in with some electric tape spun around every 3" at the top to keep the wire off the hot metal. All so check the high beam foot switch some time can be shorting 73-80. The head light rotating part of the switch not to common.

Yes, and I forgot to add that about switching to LED bulbs in both lights. Those regular bulbs do get very hot, and on the LED’s, there’s virtually no warmth at all.

[truckin 79]

Well I finally fixed my dome light in the truck. I was just about to replace all the wiring from the dome light to the fuse box when a moment of clarity came over me. I went through 3 volt meters because of not being able to get a reading of 12 volts at orange wire. I decided to look at some fuses turned out to be the first fuse I looked at above the orange 12 volt wire that was blown. I am not sure why a fuse controlled a supposed constant 12 volt hot but it did. I did switch the dome light to a LED set up.
Now on to figuring out why my oil pressure gauge reads so low at idle. I am hoping it is just the gauge and not the motor. Is there another place on motor that is easy to get to so that I could hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge?

[TKCR]

Glad to hear you got it figured out. Thanks for the update!