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Installed a new wiring harness, had to splice in the old driver side courtesy light to reach the bracket, lights don’t work correctly. Now I have the dash pad out and am trying to figure out where I went wrong. I have two whites coming from the passenger side, one is from the light and one from the switch. Two whites on the driver side, one from the light and one switch. Also one white that connects to the rear wire harness block, and one white that runs to the light switch block. Looking at the wiring diagram it seems like all the white wires are common, but when I connect them all only the driver side switch works, passenger side does nothing. I can connect each light separately to ground and they light up but I’m not understanding how this is supposed to work when it’s all connected.
It's a little different from other components on the car which have a fixed path to ground and have power switched on and off (e.g, the headlights). The courtesy lights, however, have their ground switched instead.
The orange wire provides constant 12v power, even when the key is out. The reason the light doesn't stay on constantly is because there's normally no path to ground. The white wires are supposed to provide the ground for the lights. That's why there's a white wire running to the switch - when the door is open, the spring in the switch pushes the plunger out to make contact with a piece of metal in the switch, which is connected to the switch body that screws into the door jamb. That completes the circuit and the lights go on.
Steve, thanks for the response. So, should all my whites simply be joined together? It seemed like it worked when I did this except the passenger side switch didn’t do anything. Is the switch ground through the threads then? Thanks for the help.
From: Loud, Raw and Dangerous 1968 327 4S in Southern California
Looking at my 68 schematic attached, one of the white wires on the drivers L side door switch should go to the ign. switch. This switch does not look like it grounds at the switch like the passenger side does. The wire to the light switch makes sense as when you rotate the **** all the way clockwise it turns on all the courtesy lights.
Check that at the L door switch one wire goes to the white wire node (red dot) and the other one goes to the ign switch. Perhaps a couple of the white wires are swapped?
Last edited by Redvette2; Jan 23, 2021 at 09:14 PM.
On my car (77) the white wires are tied together. What that does is make it so all the courtesy lights will light up if any switch (r door, l door, headlight **** twist) connects to ground.
Yes, the door switch threads are where the switches are grounded.
From: Loud, Raw and Dangerous 1968 327 4S in Southern California
Perhaps one of your white wires is not really going to where it is supposed to on the other end. Could ohm out each one separately and check against your schematic. Also just hooking up a few at a time might lead you to which one could be a suspect.
Got the courtesy lights working. They should all be common, problem was the switches. Anyone have a picture showing the correct way to insert the pins into the switches (courtesy, door ajar push switches?)
Courtesy light wiring
