Door Jamb switch wire - where does it travel to?

[ray_mcavoy]

Originally Posted by blindbug

1986 Chevy C10 Custom Deluxe. No dome light, no passenger jamb switch.

With no dome light, there will only be 1 tan colored wire going to the driver side door jamb switch. That tan wire is for the buzzer that sounds if you leave the key in the ignition when you open the door.

The courtesy light under the dash has an orange wire that is live all the time. And a white wire that runs directly to the headlight switch. Rotating the headlight switch knob all the way counterclockwise closes a set of contacts in the switch that ground the white wire. That completes the circuit to ground and turns on the courtesy light.

To make the courtesy light come on with the door open, you need to wire it up so the door jamb switch can also complete the ground on the white wire. That can be done by simply splicing into the white wire and running a branch over to the door jamb switch. But don't splice it into the tan wire for the key buzzer. Instead, there should be a 2nd (currently unused) terminal already on the door jamb switch just for this purpose. If not, get a replacement door jamb switch that does have 2 terminals.

[blindbug]

Originally Posted by ray_mcavoy

With no dome light, there will only be 1 tan colored wire going to the driver side door jamb switch. That tan wire is for the buzzer that sounds if you leave the key in the ignition when you open the door.

The courtesy light under the dash has an orange wire that is live all the time. And a white wire that runs directly to the headlight switch. Rotating the headlight switch knob all the way counterclockwise closes a set of contacts in the switch that ground the white wire. That completes the circuit to ground and turns on the courtesy light.

To make the courtesy light come on with the door open, you need to wire it up so the door jamb switch can also complete the ground on the white wire. That can be done by simply splicing into the white wire and running a branch over to the door jamb switch. But don't splice it into the tan wire for the key buzzer. Instead, there should be a 2nd (currently unused) terminal already on the door jamb switch just for this purpose. If not, get a replacement door jamb switch that does have 2 terminals.

Holy hell... I think THIS is why I can't get the courtesy light to activate on the door switch. I do have a single wire coming from the switch, but I do not have the buzzer in my truck. I checked everything I could and everything seemed to work good as far as grounding on open goes, but apparently it was grounding the buzzer, which doesn't exist.

What I think I might do is add a toggle switch between the door switch and the ground wire of the under-dash light. That way, if I want, I can leave the door open and have the light off or on, at my whim.

Regardless, thank you so much, this is the answer I was looking for, as nothing seemed to work the way I THOUGHT it worked!

[ray_mcavoy]

Originally Posted by blindbug

What I think I might do is add a toggle switch between the door switch and the ground wire of the under-dash light. That way, if I want, I can leave the door open and have the light off or on, at my whim.

Regardless, thank you so much, this is the answer I was looking for, as nothing seemed to work the way I THOUGHT it worked!

You're welcome! Yeah, having an override switch so you can leave the door open without the light being on can be handy at times.