Adding door jamb switches for the dome and courtesy lights

[69supercj]

Anybody ever done this? I've got some underdash lights from an old Cougar that I was going to mount so they would come on when the door is opened.

[ICEMAN6166]

i have the harness from a bumpside i just need the door switches, plugs into the existing wiring of the dome light

[69supercj]

So does the harness pick up constant power from the panel or what? Wouldn't you need constant power for this to work?

[orangeRcode]

Sounds like a good project.

[Alan Mclennan]

the interior lights have constant power, and the door switches earth the lights out or on , I`m pretty sure the interior light switch in the light switch will not be affected by it..mmm thinking about it, the light as it is has constant power to it, so you could just add the new earth leads to the wire going back to the light switch.... I think that's right!
I put 5 interior lights into a fibreglass bodied Tudor and it worked great, must see if I still have the diagram I made up to get it to work...

[longcabjohn]

I used 78 switches which are 1/4" pipe thread. Drill hole in jamb and welded in 1/4 to 3/8 bushing which was shorten, a little body filler wiped with finger and it looks factory.


Johnny

[69supercj]

I just checked my dome light and it does not have constant power to it, or at least it doesn't light the test light except when the headlight switch it turned to the left. Am I missing something? So Alan are you saying that I can wire in the door jamb switch inline with the hot wire that runs from the headlight switch up to the lamp? My door jamb switches are plastic if that matters.

[longcabjohn]

Trucks without door switches were not constant power. short ground wire connected near light in roof.



Johnny

[Alan Mclennan]

Johnny is right I don`t know what I was thinking

still looking for wiring diagram..

[yellodog]

just did this to my truck, i got the parts from a 79. the door jamb switches were too short to contact the door, so i got new ones. the brand was "standard" and the were much longer, and self adjust to the door the first time you close it. $6 each, work great. they take the same 7/16+ hole as the ford switches.

[69supercj]

How did you wire it up? Did you tie into the existing dome lamp wiring or did you run a new hot that is constant hot?

[bobenhotep]

If I was going to do that I would run a relay and have the door switches ground to turn on the relay. That way I could use ground switches off of just about anything.

Dan

[yellodog]

i ran a new constant hot wire to the light. at this point i haven't tied into the headlight switch so i can't turn the light on except by opening the door. i'll probably do that soon with a grounding relay thats energized by the headlight switch dome light power.