Betsy the Worktruck

[Selahdoor]

Jeff, you think my initial wiring cooked the switch? Then the second time I got it running without the domelight because there was nothing drawing power there? And so now with a new switch and no domelight I am assuming it will work. What you think?

Then I will investigate the dome wiring more if she starts.

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That is pretty much what I was thinking.

Without being there, I can't be sure.

But I'd bet almost anything that you were hot to ground with that domelight.

Again, I wish I were closer. I bet I could make that domelight work, and not cause a problem.



I would certainly leave it completely disconnected, (and I mean, wires pulled completely off of it and insulated), before I tried it again.



Hey, here's something to try.

You know those square plastic 'nuts' that you can get for fastening your license plate down?

Completely remove your dome light. Body and all.

Chillman said that you had two screws through that light, that go straight through the wiring. I am thinking that at least one of those is supposed to be ground, and the other is of course, hot.

Determine which one of the two wires is hot.

Now, drill the metal of the cab, where that screw was screwed in. You'll have to use something like a square file after that, to make it a square hole. Probably tedious and time consuming, but if you want the light to work, probably also worth it.

Shove that square plastic nut into the square hole in the metal.

Now put everything back together, but make sure that you use a screw on the 'hot' side, that doesn't go so far through that plastic nut that it again contacts the body of the cab.


~~~

Now, IF one is hot, and the other feeds some other bulb, (So both are essentially hot, when the light is lit...)

Then put in two of those square nuts, and make sure the screws are not contacting metal anywhere.



The essential thing to do before you start any of that, is to test and find out which wire or wires is/are hot. And where ground is supposed to be. Then be careful to make sure ground does indeed ground, and careful to keep hot away from ground.

All that is fairly easy if I have it right at hand. But gets complicated if I try to explain it all.

 

[Selahdoor]

Also: Two screws through the connectors... One each.

I think the first thing I'd try, is to figure out if one of those is supposed to be a ground. Then leave the screw in that one only, and just completely remove the other screw.

 

[Selahdoor]

Yeah. Just kind of thinking as I go along here, so I get things out of sequence. You'll figure it out.

 

[Scotty4]

Lg/y and blk/lb are power from switch. Blk/pk comes from switch to courtesy, cargo, dome and each instrument has its own ground.

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[Selahdoor]

Can you get me a picture of where those two screws are?

 

[Scotty4]

Can you get me a picture of where those two screws are?

Sure can

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[Selahdoor]

Both of those look like they are intended to be grounds. That shouldn't be a problem.

No wires connected to them, right?

Your domelight looks like mine. I think I'll go out there tomorrow, and take mine apart, while taking pictures. Let you know what mine looks like.

Meanwhile I would just leave those two wires hanging while you test the rest of what you are testing.

 

[Scotty4]

No wires. The screws go through the steel eye on the light and into the plastic connector on the wires. A third screw mounts the light to the roof. Im still thinking there's some funky wiring elsewhere I disturbed.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Have you checked your cab ground yet? I think it's above the heater box under the hood on mine. Thin braided ground wire. I added a larger wire on mine for good measure.

Some trucks (maybe the bull nose trucks?) had two ground wires. One on each side. From what I remember, most, if not all of our trucks had the one on the passenger's side. It seems like the one on the driver's side attached to one of the wiper motor mounts. The other ends attached to the back of the head (s).

 

[Scotty4]

Some trucks (maybe the bull nose trucks?) had two ground wires. One on each side. From what I remember, most, if not all of our trucks had the one on the passenger's side. It seems like the one on the driver's side attached to one of the wiper motor mounts. The other ends attached to the back of the head (s).

Mine goes from above the heater box to the hood. Cable is perfect looking. I'll look around for anything connected to the head. I may add a ground from the negative to the fender on both batteries like modern cars. And maybe again from the cowl to the block. I'll check but pretty sure the only ground it had to the block is the battery.

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[Selahdoor]

Could be.

I'll take mine apart tomorrow, so you can see if everything is the same, and is connected up right.

 

[Scotty4]

Could be.

I'll take mine apart tomorrow, so you can see if everything is the same, and is connected up right.

The thing stumping me is I put it together the same way I took it apart per my sop. However, I swapped a rusty screw out for a clean one and used dielectric grease. Bulb is incandescent now as well. I may pull the dash again and comb thru it for good measure. Maybe this will be when I clean up all the radio wires and actually put some speaker wires in.

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[aggiediesel01]

Was your clean screw longer than the rusty one? You've taken the headliner out and by doing so you've reduced the overall thickness of the mounted assembly, is it possible now that the screws are bottoming out against your roof panel and shorting? As I recall, each of those wires is hot, one always hot circuit for the map lights and one switched via the courtesy circuit. I also thought that each of the screws anchoring the wires to the light assembly were structural support attaching the light to the cross bar on the roof. I thought early on you mentioned you have the wiring diagrams but if not here are the relevant screen shots. If you don't have the whole document let me know and I'll figure a way to share it, it seems it's too big to attach to a post.

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[Scotty4]

Thanks @aggiediesel01 I've got the drawings in a binder here. The wire ends are little plastic hooks with holes that snake up into the cross bar on the roof. It could be the screws are too long. They're all the same length #8. It does not look like the screws can penetrate the hook completely, but I'll look into that today. Ive got some shorter screws too.

Problem is now, with the two wires dangling, I still don't have power with or without the headlight switch in there do something is amiss.

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[aggiediesel01]

LG/Y Wire is always hot and should have power on it if Fuse 7 is good. If Fuse 7 is good but doesn't have power then check the other fuses on that feed, fuses 4, 8, 5, Depending on the options in your truck, they come from either of two fusible links. For the BK/Pk wire, it comes from the switched side of your headlight switch but is fed from the same feed as the LG/Y.
I would look at fuse 7 and the others, if they are good but no power then I'd be wiggling and checking all the other fusible links to figure out which is likely broken but barely making contact.