New guy A108

Later holes.

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Why are these so hard to find?!!!

Finished the paneling. Need some trim work still.

Getting there! Are you putting in a headliner too? All that hard work is starting to pay off! Nice Work!

vanny wrote:Getting there! Are you putting in a headliner too? All that hard work is starting to pay off! Nice Work!

oh yeah for sure. thanks!

Windshield installed. Pain in the Ass! Pay someone with the tools and knowledge.

Got the bench seat covered in new black vinyl to match the front seats and my trim.

looks really good, they did a super job on it,,

Shweeet!

Got bunch of updates. Put in new leaf spring bushings. The. 43 year old ones were shot, no more squeaks! Was cleaning off the fuel sender wire and knocked the nut(that was barely on) off and spilled 4 gals of gas in my driveway. Found out the float had a hole in it. Needed a new seal too so I ordered up the parts. Repaired and now my fuel gauge works! Scored a wiper knob and vent window thingy from a fellow member here many thanks. Just finished the headliner. Super stoked on how it came out. Ironically I work for Vans shoes and scored some heavy canvas with a print from the 80's we just brought back to production.1/8" hardboard, 1" foam, staples and super 77 and the weekend was all I needed. Even added some eyelets and straps for surfboards. Super happy with how it came out!

Dome light wires have no power going to them. They come out of a bundle of wires that go to the tail lights and those all work fine. Door button switchesaybe?

Nice Work! That looks Fantastic!

Turn the headlight switch to the far left (counter-clockwise). That should supply ground to the dome lights. They should get power all the time. Check fuses for that. The manual I have says it's the same fuse that supplies the tail lights.
Marked TAIL STOP DOME PARK 15A. Feeds Yellow/Black wire.
Ground is on a White wire to the switch.

Often, the wrong bulb is installed which will take out the fuse.
Make sure you get the right bulb. The manual calls for a 1004.

Good luck!

Good info Rod, also look at the door buttons / driver and passenger front doors, been to log ago but i found my problem there.

Thanks Rod!

I had wires coming out of the bundle towards the back of the van that went to where a dome light would go. I been testing them to find out if they had power to no avail. Found where the wires had been cut to remove the dome light over the cabin. Wired them up. Had power to the back wires. Put in a little cheap light and now I have light when I turn the knob to the left like you said.

Now for the weird part.......gonna try to explain.
I put in a generic dome light i got at Oreilly. Its a very basic light bulb with an on/off switch with 2 wires, power and ground. Wired it up. Flip switch on.Turn knob to the left, light turns on. When I go to screw the base to the paneling(on top of metal edge at top), when I seat the screw all the way the light turns on and stays on with the headlight knob off. Doors are closed. If I dont seat the mounting screws all the way, it operates the way noted in the first paragraph by turning the knob to the left. My thoughts were that maybe I have a panelling screw poking into the wiring bundle somewhere and when the screw hits the metal it powers the light, but after reading what Rod said about how the headlight knob works I dont think that could be it. I would imagine I have bigger issues too if that was the case. Maybe the door buttons somehow? ANy thoughts here would be awesome.

I plan on getting some cool lights for the front now and wiring those up and hoping to get them to work with the door buttons.

Here is a great website I have gotten cool light for motorcylce projects before.

http://www.taillightking.com/

you have to remember you have voltage in one wire going to the dome light all the time, all the light switch knob is doing is grounding the other wire, when you run your screw all the way in it must be grounding the light makeing it come on, remember one dome light wire is hot all the time and all the switch does is ground the other wire making a complete circuit,  when you use a light with a switch in it ground one wire and the other wire conect it to the hot wire, then the switch should work in the light, i hope this helps i'm not very good at explaining, cant spell either..

Ah yes I just woke up to and "ah ha" moment. The light grounds to the metal base. When the screw hit the metal under the paneling, it grounds. Duh.

Yep, the door pin switches also supply ground.
They are what are called 'normally closed'. This means when the switch is removed from the vehicle, it's a complete path from the wire to the body of the switch (ground).
When the switch is installed, and the door is open, the switch is closed.
ONLY when the switch is installed and the door is closed will the switch go to 'open' or not ground the circuit.
It sounds backwards until you think about it.
These are cheap switches that get a bunch of abuse when the door is opened/closed and slammed. It also will corrode and people will paint right over them. All of this tends to make the switch fail or stay open.
Take it out, clean it up, clean it's mounting surface to bare metal, make sure a star washer is used, tighten it properly and make sure it's angled right and adjusted to the proper depth, if possible. Then it should work for another 10+ years without thought.

RodStRace wrote:Yep, the door pin switches also supply ground.
They are what are called 'normally closed'. This means when the switch is removed from the vehicle, it's a complete path from the wire to the body of the switch (ground).
When the switch is installed, and the door is open, the switch is closed.
ONLY when the switch is installed and the door is closed will the switch go to 'open' or not ground the circuit.
It sounds backwards until you think about it.
These are cheap switches that get a bunch of abuse when the door is opened/closed and slammed. It also will corrode and people will paint right over them. All of this tends to make the switch fail or stay open.
Take it out, clean it up, clean it's mounting surface to bare metal, make sure a star washer is used, tighten it properly and make sure it's angled right and adjusted to the proper depth, if possible. Then it should work for another 10+ years without thought.  

Thanks Rod! You always have great advice.

Ok I pulled the switch and it has no wire coming out of it.....



Here is a pic of what I am looking at. There is a small hole on the inside of the van that looks like where the switch wire should come out of. There is a open plug here that has 2 green wires in it.
I am assuming the switch needs a wire and it goes into this open ground plug. Gonna give that a try after dinner.

Update. That didn't work. Whenever I would turn the headlights on the fuse would pop

Need some more advice. My book has nothing about these switches. Gonna need to find a new fuse block too. Mines pretty old

Anybody got any tips on the above?

Also had the fusible wires in the VR pop on a drive last week. Not sure why. The wiring is shit but I don't want to tackle a full rewrire.

Messed with the gauges and now the lites that light up the gauges don't work. Arggghhhhh.

Well, everything YOU touch fails, so STOP TOUCHING THINGS!    
The wiring is going to be an issue until you fix or replace it.
Take the new light out unless you run a new power and ground to it.
Fusible links pop when excess amps flow. Either you have a short or you have so many corroded connectors that the amps necessary to power stuff and jump the corrosion is causing excess flow.
The lights in the cluster get fed from the headlight switch, that's how they dim.
As always, get the wiring diagram, study which circuit is causing problems and check it from power to ground.

Rotate the light switch to the left just short of turning on the dome light.It is a reostat to control the brightness of the instrument lights.