Dome light

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Mark80K15

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Well, today the cigarette lighter decided to work, and now the dome light doesn't. Neither does the courtesy light under the dash (also worked yesterday). I think the courtesy light flashed when I manually depressed the drivers open door switch. That gives me something to go on. I think it's safe to say the wiring and fuses are intact which was my initial concern. Now it sounds like my problem is very much like the one described in the excellent "Dome lamp ground short circuit questions" thread. I'll read it a little more carefully and see if I can diagnose. BTW Matt69olds can you please tell me about the LED bulbs you ordered from Amazon? What is the part number?
 

Phil83K10

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Just spent the last few days with my stupid dome light. The power for my 83 K10 is connected to a 'bat.' port that is linked to my horn fuse. Sorry, dont have a pic, but can take one if you wish. My power line is white, located just under the horn fuse near the bottom center of the fuse block.
If your dome light shorts out like mine did, it will blow your horn fuse and drive you nuts trying to figure out what was the root cause. What made a GM engineer think it was a good idea to connect the dome light to the horn fuse? Maybe it was a Monday morning assembly line quick fix??
 

Doppleganger

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What made a GM engineer think it was a good idea to connect the dome light to the horn fuse? Maybe it was a Monday morning assembly line quick fix??

Same one who wired all the windows and such with no relays. At the time, these were 12 month/12,000 mile warranties (from NEW). They knew what they made.
 

shinkle

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I had the exact same problem, dome light, cig lighter, cargo light, horn, radio all on one fuse continues to blow. I removed the bulbs from dome and cargo light, unpluggled the back of cig lighter, turned the radio off, closed both doors to stop power to all. I added a new fuse, and one by one tried each or connected each back up to see when the fuse would blow. Open door, turn on radio, toot horn, plug in cargo bulb, plug in dome bulb, plug in cig lighter.....POP. Cig lighter caused it. I then unplugged the cig lighter and replaced the fuse. No problems in almost 1 year. Cig lighter is notorius for shorting, even brand new ones.

I can live with no cig lighter.
 

AuroraGirl

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Same one who wired all the windows and such with no relays. At the time, these were 12 month/12,000 mile warranties (from NEW). They knew what they made.
To be fair it was industry standard to run high loads through switches and relays were kept at a minimum. Not to say it wasn’t deliberate but it wasn’t any exception to do so lol
 

Bruce Wingate

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I had the exact same problem, dome light, cig lighter, cargo light, horn, radio all on one fuse continues to blow. I removed the bulbs from dome and cargo light, unpluggled the back of cig lighter, turned the radio off, closed both doors to stop power to all. I added a new fuse, and one by one tried each or connected each back up to see when the fuse would blow. Open door, turn on radio, toot horn, plug in cargo bulb, plug in dome bulb, plug in cig lighter.....POP. Cig lighter caused it. I then unplugged the cig lighter and replaced the fuse. No problems in almost 1 year. Cig lighter is notorius for shorting, even brand new ones.

I can live with no cig lighter.

Me too. This weekend's project was figuring out the radio, horn and dome light problems. All were popping fuses

My wiring harness is not perfect but not too molested either. Looks like the POs only did an engine swap and at least two aftermarket radios. My line of thinking was to look for changes and areas where people take short cuts with wiring. Radio installation seems to be a hell hole of lousy shortcuts. I found two scotchlock taps on the wire for the clock. One done OK. The other one left an unshielded hot bullet connector floating behind the dash. I removed it and it was fine.

Dome light was weird. The socket is a two connector socket which will trip the fuse if you put a one conductor bulb in. Just need the right bulb for it. But this was not too weird because I thought to check this based on another dome light thread.

The problem with the horns themselves was a half done aftermarket steering wheel. Someone skipped putting in the horn wiring.
 

80BrownK10

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GrandviewTM 10 X 44mm(1.73") 12-SMD 1210 3528 Chip Rigid Loop Festoon LED Bulbs for Car Interior Light Dome Map Light Door Courtesy Lights 561 562 567 (White) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KKQSG...abc_KY5N9PEH7QQ72NG9SJVC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1


I think this is the LED replacement bulbs I used.
I'm visiting making my done light work for the first time since I have owned the truck. That's like 15 years. I remembered this thread and it was the first in a search so I was reading back through it for any valuable info. That lightbulb doesn't look a bit like what my truck takes. It looks like the same light as the anchor light on my boat uses. A smaller looking 1157 type bulb. Think of one of those like half scale. Someone else has it too cause they takes about a 2 contact base for the bulb .
 

Turbo4whl

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I'm visiting making my done light work for the first time since I have owned the truck. That's like 15 years. I remembered this thread and it was the first in a search so I was reading back through it for any valuable info. That lightbulb doesn't look a bit like what my truck takes. It looks like the same light as the anchor light on my boat uses. A smaller looking 1157 type bulb. Think of one of those like half scale. Someone else has it too cause they takes about a 2 contact base for the bulb .

1004 bulb 12 volt

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80BrownK10

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1004 bulb 12 volt

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That's it. I also saw a #90 bulb listed in places and the same application. It's so weird that there is so many numbers but are the same.
 

80BrownK10

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I can't find why this thing isn't working. Where does the wire go from the dome light? Where under the carpet does it run. I'm trying to trace this down. There is no power to socket with the door open or the light switched turned to on.
 

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The dome light is powered by an always-on orange wire that runs under the driver's side door kickplate, then up the inside of the back cab corner and over to the light. Along with the orange wire is the white ground wire that runs to the door switches.

IIRC, up under the dash near the emergency brake the orange wire comes from the fuse panel and then splits out to run to both the courtesy lights under the dash and to the dome light. If you could interrupt this wire with a switch it should turn off power to both sets of lights. You could probably drill a hole in the dash and mount the switch near the emergency brake pull handle.

Bruce
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here was an IP piece cut out with the floor lamp and a good chunk of the wiring left in still on it. The bulb socket sitting there I believe was the radio illumination bulb . i stole the floor socket for my f150 and indeed it is orange. there is an orange with black wire, i do believe
 

Raider L

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@80BrownK10,

The dome light wires are next to the seat base at the door threshold. It's probably under the carpet right there under the sile plate. Unscrew the sile plate. If you don't see it right off, lift up the carpet that was trapped under the sile plate and they both should be right there, orange and white, or the second wire may be black or gray depending on the year. My '74 are orange and white. Also you can look in the opening right in the corner behind the left side of the seat. The dome wires run right up inside that enclosure there in the corner of the cab. Good place to stash a gun. Throw some rags on top and it'll be unseen, that is until some old cop who owns a Square knows about that enclosure and finds it. Then you go to jail.
 

80BrownK10

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@80BrownK10,

The dome light wires are next to the seat base at the door threshold. It's probably under the carpet right there under the sile plate. Unscrew the sile plate. If you don't see it right off, lift up the carpet that was trapped under the sile plate and they both should be right there, orange and white, or the second wire may be black or gray depending on the year. My '74 are orange and white. Also you can look in the opening right in the corner behind the left side of the seat. The dome wires run right up inside that enclosure there in the corner of the cab. Good place to stash a gun. Throw some rags on top and it'll be unseen, that is until some old cop who owns a Square knows about that enclosure and finds it. Then you go to jail.
Thanks. I need to get back on this project. As for the other. I may or may not have a CCP and I can hide a gun wherever I want to on my body or several places in my truck. Even if I didn't have one you can ride around with guns in this state unless your a convicted felon.
 

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