Cargo and Dome not working

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perky

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My dome light wasn't working. I took out the switches in the door frame and lightly sanded them, fixed up both sides and the light works great. Make sure you push the spring loaded contacts in and out in order to clean them up at the point of contact.
That makes sense, I'll definetly try that on the passenger side to see if it helps a bit. The drivers side seemed fine when I pulled it out, but the passengers is sticky.
 

mtbadbob

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Door switches are a common issue if the bulbs are good. Mine dome & cargo never worked when I got my truck neither, had to replace cab harness & mess with drivers door switch to get everything working.
 

bucket

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My dome light wasn't working. I took out the switches in the door frame and lightly sanded them, fixed up both sides and the light works great. Make sure you push the spring loaded contacts in and out in order to clean them up at the point of contact.

If all you did was repair the door switches, then technically your dome light worked before too. All you had to do was rotate the headlight knob counterclockwise and the dome light would have come on. Obviously you wanted the door switches to work too and that's fine, I'm only bringing it up because I'm guessing there's a lot of people that don't realize there's the feature with the headlight knob.
 

mlsceo

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If all you did was repair the door switches, then technically your dome light worked before too. All you had to do was rotate the headlight knob counterclockwise and the dome light would have come on. Obviously you wanted the door switches to work too and that's fine, I'm only bringing it up because I'm guessing there's a lot of people that don't realize there's the feature with the headlight knob.
I know about turning the knob to turn on the dome light. I should've been more clear. The dome light didn't come on when the doors were opened, cleaning the switches fixed that.
 

perky

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Okay, after rolling around under the dash for a while, I am 90% sure it's the orange wires causing nothing to receive power, probably disconnected by the po for battery drain from the passenger switch. Problem is, I don't really know what order to plug then in at, so I've got a picture of how I discovered them. Thanks guys.
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Jgonick

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The one in your hand plugs into fuse box- ( plugs at blue arrow in pic of my other post). I can see where it meets the white wires and heads to dome light. The other two should plug together leaving one connector hanging by itself.
 

bucket

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Okay, after rolling around under the dash for a while, I am 90% sure it's the orange wires causing nothing to receive power, probably disconnected by the po for battery drain from the passenger switch. Problem is, I don't really know what order to plug then in at, so I've got a picture of how I discovered them. Thanks guys.
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One of them will plug into the fuse box, with a pigtail hanging off. The second wire will plug into that pigtail, leaving another (unused) pigtail.
 

perky

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Thank you guys, I really appreciate it. I'll head out there and hook it up. I've got a lot to learn electrically wise, obviously.
 

bucket

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I forgot to mention, it may be unplugged due to a short that pops a fuse. The same fuse also supplies the radio memory if you have a factory electronic tuned radio.

*edit* I'm a dummy, lol. Glass fuses means no electronic tuned radio. But it applies to the later trucks.
 

perky

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Okay so bad news. Hooked it up, fresh fuse, nothing. Even with the headlight switch on the dash. No clock, cargo, dome, or courtesy. Any other ideas?
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Jgonick

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Well that’s definitely the orange wire that goes to the dome light. See where it meets the white wires. That is where the dome white wire is spliced to the one from the door switch running to the courtesy light. If you have a volt meter I would check to see if orange wire has power. Without knowing if the courtesy lamp works - I would start checking the orange & white wire that runs along the floor by the door- like mentioned earlier- that is a real common area for the wires to go bad. A multimeter (they aren’t very expensive) would be very useful at this point to test grounds & voltage.

Side note- I would probably unplug it from fuse box until I figured out what was going on to be on the safe side- Not knowing why it was disconnected in the first place.
 
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ashadow1

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I have a 77 C20 and mine was doing the same thing. It turned out to be the orange and white wire that run under the carpet. It took a few times checking it before finding the tiny cut in the wire.
 

Weasel74

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That makes sense, I'll definetly try that on the passenger side to see if it helps a bit. The drivers side seemed fine when I pulled it out, but the passengers is sticky.
That dome light wire does indeed go under the driver’s side kick plate. My dome light went out a few years ago and I traced it back to that location where the wire’s insulation had worn off. Fixed that wire and dome works fine.
 

romcjr

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I would suspect door jam switches .
 

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