andyww

Started working on my interior light issues. Started out with the fuse blowing. Traced that down to the light under the hood and got that fixed. Now the lights work fine in the manual position. The problem is the auto position. With the doors open all the lights work. When the doors are closed and the switches "made" the lights do not cut off. The relay is mechanically working. It clicks after about 30 seconds after the door switches are made. Once it clicks the interior lights dim a little. With the door open I have continuity to ground on the lights. Once the timer times out I still have .16 ohms to ground. Basically the ground wire is not going 100% open when the relay times out. I have all of the lights removed and hanging by the wires so nothing is touching ground at the lights. I took the relay apart and manually checked the contact and it seems to be working just fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help.

OTR18WHEELER

MY included with post or imbeded in your signature is a must for better diagnostics, but since you didn't specify help from the experts, may I suggest that be sure all of the interior lights are connected properly, occasionaly the overhead light above the windshield can short against the roof, also don't forget the light in the rear hatch.

andyww

Sorry about that. It's a 1986.5

I have actually removed the lights and have them hanging by the wires to make sure nothing is shorted on the back side of the lights.

yardpro

sounds like you have chafed wire somewhere supplying a poor ground, sounds like it may be at a point with paint or something not allowing a full ground.

OTR18WHEELER

Does your door chime relay work?

69gaugeman

Also there are three positions to the lights. On / off / door. make sure it is not on the 'on' position. If the wires on the lights are not on the right terminal you will get weird operation as well.

andyww

I will check the door chime tomorrow. I can't remember it working. I have checked the wiring on the lights again. I have checked them once. A double check never hurts.

Alan

Seems most likely you have the lights connected incorrectly.

Bulb end gets the red wire (or in the hatch the green wire)

Frame of the fixture gets the brown wire

Switched contact gets the brown/white wire (or in the hatch the white wire)

Swap the brown & brown/white wires (or brown & white in hatch) you get what you describe.

Alan

Randy V

Seeing as Alan is on the case, you are well on your way to a solution.

Wisconsin Joe

Does he have a cape?

He needs a cape.
And theme music too.

yardpro

he don't need no stinking cape

he has a batman style tool belt with an ocilloscope, mulitmeter, strippers and crimpers

Alan

The strippers are just a malicious rumor!

Alan

andyww

I'm going to take Alan's advice and have a look at the wiring on all of the lights. I suspect it may be the light in the hatch. I just finished painting the car and had it out. I will follow up as soon as I have a chance to look. Looks like I might not get to it today. I have a fairly large "honey do" list.

Alan

Don't worry about the door mounted footwell lights - they should be configured similarly with the red wire to the bulb end - but you can connect the other two wires however you like - and probably should connect them differently (so up & down on the switch mean the same thing functionally on both sides (think about that one...).

There is no metallic frame or frame grounding so these fixtures can't cause the same problem as the roof/hatch ones.

Alan

andyww

Update. Still having issues. I have managed to get the door lights working properly. This was done my removing the terminal connector "S". This connector has the ground wire that goes to all of the lights except the doors. When I plug it in the issues comes back. I have also unhooked the wires going to the truck light, and both roof lights. With everything unhooked i still have the issue so the lights being wired wrong should not be an issue now...

I also disconnected the connector in the top of the hatch. This is a 8 pin connector that disconnects the rear roof light and the light in the hatch. After plugging in connector "S" the problem returns. I am now thinking the issue is somewhere between connector "S" and the 8 pin connector at the top of the hatch..

Are there any known problem areas?

Thanks again in advance...

Andy