Dome light not coming on

I have an 85 p/u, and I think that the lighting in the truck is poor at best, so I wired in two additional "kick panel" lights on the driver and passenger sides. The wiring going from the door switches to the fuse box is not complicated and you could probably replace the entire wiring assembly with little effort.

As far as the dome light... I only have a few suggestions, but they are basic at best. Mine was in a lot of off road situations with the windows down, and condensation had managed to rust the connectors in the light assembly. You may try taking it out and putting a little steel wool to it.

*laughs* The previous owner of mine took out the bed lamp and decided to cap it with some sort of plug so it leaks a bit when it rains. I should fix that sometime...

Thanks for replying! I should have stated that I only have the mirror mounted dome light. The contacts on the dome light are fine. They're clean and check good for continuity in either of the operating positions. Maybe I 'will' re-wire the door switches, as you said. Might as well add the kick panel lights too. It sounds like a great idea.

Does anyone know which side of the windshield the mirror-mounted dome light wires go down? This would aid in my testing.

Thanks again.

jumper the door switches first, make sure the switches aren't bad

I think the driver's door switch has two separate sets of contacts - one for the buzzer, the other for the dome light. Also realize that the power goes from the fuse panel to the dome light, through the (On-Off-Auto) switch and dome lamp, and then to ground at the door switch - but often through a ground wire to a common chassis ground bolt, not straight to ground through the switch body threads like on American cars. If someone disconnects the chassis ground bolt under the kick panels, it can goof up lots of stuff.

Get a simple test light, it's easy to see where the power stops and isolate the bad switch or connection. (Just don't use a test light not marked "Computer Safe" on the leads going to the EFI Computer or bad things can happen.)

Probably the Key-in-the-Ignition-Lock sense switch in the steering column, hooked up to the aforementioned annoying buzzer. ;-)

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Wow thanks Bruce, lots of great info!

There is only one lead going to the driver and passenger door switches. I get no power to either. I also don't get anything at the dome light, in any position. I do get power at the dome light fuse. I just don't know what else is inline with the dome light and fuse. I don't see any grounds disconnected near the kick panels.

I've just traced it down, "somewhat". After analyzing what you said, looking at the schematic again, then realizing that the dome light didn't work in "any" position, led me to throw out testing the door switches, because that part of the circuit is irrelevant.

With the dome switch in the "on" position, power runs from the fuse box to the dome light, then to ground. Therefore, I have only two possibilities: 1. Check for continuity between the dome ground and chassis ground - and - 2. Check for continuity between the fuse and the dome light.

The ground is good. There is no continuity between the fuse and the "on" of the dome light. This tells me that the problem or "break" lies between the fuse box and dome light.

This should be fun ;P If I can't trace the break down, I'll just run a wire directly from the fuse box to the dome switch.

Thanks for the jump-start!