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Well Norm, you disappoint me, I had great faith in your mind reading abilities. So I will offer some clues, it's a 69 cutlass convertible. I purchased the switch on ebay. It appears to be a used but cleaned up original switch. I believe it would have a mercury switch, but It doesn't seem to work. I connected it to the battery and grounded it and it seems to stay on regardless of its position. So I assume it would have to be wired into the lighting circuit. If there is a better circuit please advise. There is a existing hole on the passenger underside of the hood which makes me wonder if that is where it would be located. Any advice would be appreciated.
thanks,
Steve
Hey Steve. Well, that information certainly helps.
I have a '71 CS & my under hood lamp is located on the LH driver side. I know the OEM lamp in my vehicle was the mercury switch type. The lamp wasn't working in mine when I purchased the vehicle. I replaced the lamp w/ a standard lamp in the original socket. These lamps came on w/ the headlamp SW pulled out & the hood raised. Since I replaced mine with a standard lamp, my under hood lamp remains lit when I have the headlight SW pulled out. No biggies for me since I hardly do any night driving w/ the vehicle, and if the lamp/bulb burns out at some point I can afford the $3 to replace it. I might have some pictures of my lamp and location. If I do I'll post them. If not, I'm betting someone else knows the location for a '69 Cutlass.
BTW, I don't have the '69 Assembly Manual, I do have the '71 but I'm hesitant to post a picture of that one since your '69 might be in a different location.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The under hood light is powered by a brown wire from the wiring harness - at least on the '71 series vehicles. In the mean time, you might check for a random brown wire floating/lurking about which isn't attached to anything under your hood emanating from your wiring harness. "If" yours was located on the LH drivers side, it would be located in that general vicinity.
The OEM under hood lamp holder. I ripped out the OEM socket & replaced it with a new modern socket. Honestly, I can't recall if I replaced it w/ a 1156 or a 1157 bulb. I think it was a 1156 - I only see one filament in my photo/image. I'll do more checking on images.
Identified below (blue circle) is the small OEM clip (wire socket holder) which is used to attach the wire socket holder. The complete assembly achieves its ground via attachment to the metal hood. Indeed, I replaced the OEM hood socket w/ a single contact (single filament) 1156 lamp receptacle/bulb. You can find these OEM under hood bulb assemblies on eBay and other sites, as well.
Switch? There is no switch for an underhood light on a 69 Cutlass. It's operated by the mercury switch in the light housing. As for location, the hood frame is pre-drilled for the two mounting screws.
