ford dome light

[maddog]

i recently picked up a dome light from a 89 f150 at a junkyard but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to wire it in (my Eagle has the round one and it isn't working) so if any of you now how please let me know because I kind of need to get a working one in as soon as possible.

[vangremlin]

Is it one of the lights with the center portion that is supposed to come on when you open the doors, and the two side map lights?  How many wires are there?

[maddog]

yes it is one of the ones with map lights.  It has two wires, one is brown and the other is black with a grey stripe.

[mo.eagles]

The round dome light has 2 wires to it . One is hot (12V) all the time ( I think its red ) . The other (black) goes to the door switches and provides a ground . Check the  wires and make sure you have power at one of the  wires . If not check your fuse block and make sure you have power to and through the fuse . The Ford light should be powered at the brown wire .

[maddog]

thanks mo.eagles i'll have to check the wires tomorrow when there's light, as for the fuse block I think everything is alright with it seeing as my floor lights are still working.

[mo.eagles]

Hold on . In order for the map lights to work you will need another ground source or you will need to turn on the dome light at the light switch . Can you put up a pick of the back of the Ford light ?

[vangremlin]

I think the map lights are grounded through the body of the lamp, when you screw it to the roof.  One of the wires is for the switched ground connection for when the doors open or headlight switch turned all the way. 

[mo.eagles]

Ok that'll work.

[maddog]

sorry I haven't been on in a couple of days so I'm just now seeing this but it does have a hole for a screw that grounds it as for having checked my wiring my hot to the dome light has no power going to it so I'm going to have to chase wires and find out where in Sam's name my break is and go from there.

[maddog]

well I found a broken ground wire in the connector that goes under the driverside kick panel but I'm not sure if that was the issue or if it was the heavily corroded connections that were causing my issue or not but my original dome light is now working. As for the ford dome light I got me a multimeter and found out that both wires coming off it are both hot and that the only ground is the body mount. Now my only issue besides needing to get a new connector for all of the wiring that goes to the rear is figuring out how I am going to mount the new dome to the roof because one of the hots is on the opposite side of the ground screw.

[mo.eagles]

If that's the case the ford light will stay on all the time.

[eaglefreek]

I bought a couple of the Ford lights from the junkyard, when I had my Eagle and when I went to install it, I realized how different they were and decided it was worth the trouble. I installed a more modern dome light from a later F150. I had to do some modification of the light since it worked differently than the Eagle's, but I don't remember what I did.
http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=36180.msg345474#msg345474

[mo.eagles]

Ok, try this . Pull the dome light bulb out of the light, leaving the map lights in .  Put one lead of your meter on the ground and touch the other lead to one of the wires . Flip the map light switches both in one direction then the other to find which wire controls the lights . That should be the hot wire . The other should be door switch ground .  That is if the light fixture you have looks like the light Amc used . If it looks like the one eaglefreek used then I'd have to look at a fixture to figure it out . 

[maddog]

yeah I did that when I tested it but if it is going to be the pain eaglefreak says it is (and I have a very strong feeling it is going to be every bit the pain he says it is seeing as one of the hot wires meets up with one of the mounting holes for the original dome light) then I may just hit up the yard and try to find one that won't take too much modification and will be easy to mount to the roof and yes that includes checking foreign cars.

[abzman]

It shouldn't be a big deal, I can show you how mine went together and how it was wired.  I just had it down to work on the bulbs (add LEDs).