It seems like every time I overcome one electrical issue,(often with great help from the members of this forum) I encounter another. 70 442 with the courtesy light package. The trunk, hood and console light all work as they should. The dash courtesy light won't go off regardless of the position of any switch. If there's power to the car, the lights go on and you can't turn them off. I would really appreciate some ideas on where to start looking for the issue and how to do it. I'm not good with electrical isues.

Thanks

 

Most likely one of your door jamb pin switches is not working right. The courtesy lights themselves have power at all times, the door jam switches provide the ground to turn them on. Pull off the kick panels and remove the wires to each switch one at a time and see which one turns the light off with the doors closed.

 

You may also want to pull the map light above the radio and check the switch. I had a short there which caused all interior lights to stay on.

 

Or just make sure the switch is in the OFF position. Many times I inadvertently turned that switch on while wiping down the dash.

 

Thanks to all who have responded. I will try everything suggested and see what happens. Oddly, the map light doesn't work so that could be the source

 

I really appreciate everyone's input but I'm still having issues and now a buddy of mine who is pretty good with all things electrical is confused too. I pulled the map light and disconnected it from the harness. I replaced both door switches. We still have not been able to find a solve. The rear quarter courtesy lights work exactly as they should, .everything else stays on all the time. It's obviously not a short circuit or nothing would work. What's really frustrating I s that these are al brand new harnesses. I would really appreciate any further thoughts.

Thanks

 

I don't know, but I found a really weird anomaly w/ my car when I purchased it. Someone previously replaced a two-contact lamp socket on one one side w/ a single contact lamp socket and a double-contact lamp bulb. On the other side someone replaced a single-contact lamp socket w/ a two-contact lamp socket and a single lamp bulb. Talk about a nightmare to resolve w/ just a handy 12V probing lamp. I would never have found the issue(s) unless I had carefully evaluated the sockets and types of lamps they removed and replaced. So, be sure the correct sockets are installed w/ the correct lamps.

 

Your courtesy lights have 12v power at all times whether the key is on or off. The circuit is controlled by grounds through the door pin switches or by rotating the headlight switch to the left. All this is done through the white wires. Did you do what I asked in post #2?

 

That is only true for a short on the positive side of the bulbs; if there is a shorted wire on the ground side of the bulbs, then the system would act as if one of the switches were closed and the lights would illuminate.

 

oldcutlas,

No I have not tried your suggestion yet. My electrical knowledge is so limited that I don't fully understand what it is you are suggesting. What exactly am I looking for and how do I fix it?

 

Since the courtesy light circuit needs a ground on the white wires the easiest way to troubleshoot is start unplugging the white wires one at a time until the light goes out.

 

I'd like to thank everyone for there ideas and suggestions. We've got it figured out and it's yet another lesson for any of us who have to buy aftermarket parts. We noticed that the rheostat on the headlight switch that normally adjusts the brightness of the dash lights was instead adjusting the brightness of the courtesy lights. That was a real head scratcher until we stated looking at connectors under the dash and matching wire colors on each side of the connectors. We found that on one of the pug sets for the courtesy lights, the wire colors did not match from one side to the other. After switching wires so that colors matched from side to side, everything worked perfectly.

This is really frustrating for me as we spent pretty much two full days trying tp get this figured out. Every harness on the car is new and every one of them is American made by American Autowire. They will be getting a call from me tomorrow to discuss their error. I guess the lesson for me is to double-check wire colors on every single plug as you connect them. Truth be told, you shouldn't haver to but lesson learned

Thanks again.

 

Glad you got it figured out.

 

Happy for you.