What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Ugh..electrical dome light issue......UPDATE!!

badmix

badmix

1/2 ton status
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Posts
4,474
Reaction score
165
Location
West Virginia
I picked up an LED strip today and was going to put it under my dash in place of the little courtesy light that is just under the ashtray. well there are 4 wires. An Orange, A white by itself, and two whites coming from the door pins, all these go into this one bulb connection. The Orange is constant hot and so is the double whites. Even with the doors closed and dome lights off. How would I hook up a simple 2 wire light to this mess. The problem is, I dont know what the solo white wire does, its not a ground cuz when I put my test light on the orange (constant hot w/ 12v) and touch the solo white I get nothing. I know better than to touch the orange with the double whites, lol. well, I knew better after I blew a fuse. ahahahaa....anyways, I cut the wires pretty close to the bulb socket thingy so I cant reuse it, Junk yards are worthless and dont have anything like this around here. Id like to have some kind of light up there, even if its OEM.

So.......

1) Does anyone have a courtesy light from up front with 4 wires that they arent using?

2) Does anyone have a good wire diagram to tell me where these wires are going to and from and what that solo white wire does?

3) Anyway to hook up a simple two lead light up here that works with the doors and dome light switch on dash?

Thanks
 
badmix said:
I picked up an LED strip today and was going to put it under my dash in place of the little courtesy light that is just under the ashtray. well there are 4 wires. An Orange, A white by itself, and two whites coming from the door pins, all these go into this one bulb connection. The Orange is constant hot and so is the double whites. Even with the doors closed and dome lights off. How would I hook up a simple 2 wire light to this mess. The problem is, I dont know what the solo white wire does, its not a ground cuz when I put my test light on the orange (constant hot w/ 12v) and touch the solo white I get nothing. I know better than to touch the orange with the double whites, lol. well, I knew better after I blew a fuse. ahahahaa....anyways, I cut the wires pretty close to the bulb socket thingy so I cant reuse it, Junk yards are worthless and dont have anything like this around here. Id like to have some kind of light up there, even if its OEM.

So.......

1) Does anyone have a courtesy light from up front with 4 wires that they arent using?

2) Does anyone have a good wire diagram to tell me where these wires are going to and from and what that solo white wire does?

3) Anyway to hook up a simple two lead light up here that works with the doors and dome light switch on dash?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the white wires are all ground, and ground through the door coutresy light switches.

Open/close a door, and test continuity from white to a known ground.

Hook the hot (+) side of the LED strip to the orange wire, and the ground side to the white wires. That way, if it grounds through any of the white wires, it lights up.

My guess is your 3 white's are one to each door, and one to the tailgate light switch (that probably doesnt' work anymore).
 
The Pins work, cuz if I push on the pin the lights go out. Also, if I have the double whites up front seperated, the rear cargo light will not light up.

I did hook the light up positive to orange and neg to solo white, the light came on, but I need it to work thru the door pins.
 
badmix said:
The Pins work, cuz if I push on the pin the lights go out. Also, if I have the double whites up front seperated, the rear cargo light will not light up.

I did hook the light up positive to orange and neg to solo white, the light came on, but I need it to work thru the door pins.
Click to expand...

If you seperate the grounds, i would guess one door would/wouldn't work to light the lights.

Besides that, i have no idea.
 
Ok..

also none of it worked with the headlight switch to turn the dome lights on. I guess its all tied into that bulb socket. :confused:
 
Well, that bulb only has 2 prong on it. So, the grounds have GOT to be tied together, and the grounds to the other side. My only question is if the fact you are putting an LED in chain with a regular bulb is screwing up the ohm load or something. I would try hooking up the bulb directly, white wires to one side, orange to the other, and see if everything works correctly.

Cant' be that tough.
 
Problem is, I cut the socket wires so close to the socket I cant splice anything back the way it was, otherwise Id just do that. I need that socket with atleast 6 inches of wire still attached. And the connections inside the socket wont come out without tear the socket all up.

It sux when your try to upgrade and only wishing you hadnt messed with it in the first place. lol
 
badmix said:
Problem is, I cut the socket wires so close to the socket I cant splice anything back the way it was, otherwise Id just do that. I need that socket with atleast 6 inches of wire still attached. And the connections inside the socket wont come out without tear the socket all up.

It sux when your try to upgrade and only wishing you hadnt messed with it in the first place. lol
Click to expand...

Don't need a socket to hook up a light bulb. Hook the white wires to the base surround, the hot to the bottom nub.
 
The white wires are all hot, the door switches ground out with the door open and turn on the interior lights.
 
Barc said:
The white wires are all hot, the door switches ground out with the door open and turn on the interior lights.
Click to expand...
No, that is completely wrong there. Orange is constant hot, whites are ground. When the doors open the pins ground and provide the second half of the circuit through the white wires.

Okay, let me explain, you have 3 ground wires and a hot. The orange wire is the hot wire. You also have a ground wire that comes from each door post, and the third should be the wire from the headlight switch. I don't remember where they tie together under the dash. The entire system is a ground switch system.

The rear cargo light and overhead dome light are tied together behind the drivers seat in the side panel. This could have been changed at any time, but on all that I have seen there is a single orange and single white that run down the drivers side then go into the connector for the rear cargo and into the reinforced area above the seats.

On mine, the orange ties into the cigarette lighter as well. I am trying to remember the ground setup for that light, but without Krusty here I cannot remember. I will gladly take a look at my courtesy light under the dash and tell you what is setup, but it will be morning before I get to it.
 
Ok ground switch makes more sense, I thought the overhead dome was white wire in and out and it was constant hot. I installed a rearview with map lights and tied in at the overhead dome light. but it may have been an orange wire now that you made me think some more.
 
Ok, I understand the whites, except I can put one end of my test light to body ground and touch the white double door pin wire it lights up my test light.

So should I just twist all the white together as a ground and then hook up to the orange? that doesnt seem like a good idea, lol.
 
Something is not right there, there should be no power going through any white wire in that system. It is possible that something is feeding power into it, but tracing it would not be an easy task. If you can eliminate that wire, does the light work with both the headlight and passenger door switch?

If there is power, and you twist them together, you should blow a fuse somewhere. That might be a quick way to find a short, but it isn't the best idea. Both wires going to the double pin switch are grounds, one controls the key warning when the door is open, the other feeds ground to the dome system.

You might need to pull that switch out and see if the power is being fed to one wire or the other, it might be a short feeding in from the key warning buzzer, and you could tape up that wire and leave it disconnected. If it is feeding into the dome light ground then you will have to trace it to find out where it is cross connected.
 
badmix said:
Ok, I understand the whites, except I can put one end of my test light to body ground and touch the white double door pin wire it lights up my test light.

So should I just twist all the white together as a ground and then hook up to the orange? that doesnt seem like a good idea, lol.
Click to expand...


You are getting power back-fed through one of your other courtesy lights to the white wire (totally normal). If all your other bulbs were removed from the sockets you would not get any power on the white wires.

Connect all whites together hook to LED ground
Connect orange wire to LED positive.

Don't over think it.

Rufus
 
rufusbooth said:
You are getting power back-fed through one of your other courtesy lights to the white wire (totally normal). If all your other bulbs were removed from the sockets you would not get any power on the white wires.

Connect all whites together hook to LED ground
Connect orange wire to LED positive.

Don't over think it.

Rufus
Click to expand...

I hope its that easy. lol..worse I can do is pop fuses right?
 
rufusbooth said:
yep, worst is pop a fuse, but that wont happen :D

Cheers,

Rufus
Click to expand...

Don't ever say teh worst you can do is pop a fuse, thats bad luck. Say that too many times and a fuse will fail and cook somethign more $$$.

But yes, just hook it up as we described. Should work fine.
 
dhcomp said:
Don't ever say teh worst you can do is pop a fuse, thats bad luck. Say that too many times and a fuse will fail and cook somethign more $$$.

But yes, just hook it up as we described. Should work fine.
Click to expand...


Hummm....:doah:I did just challenge "worse" didn't I. DOH!

Broke my own rule, never challenge worse.
 
IT WORKS!!!!. I twisted ALL the whites and the connected the neg to that and the pos to the orange. works like its suppose to. WIth the door pins and the dash switch. Yea!!.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom