I thought I would post here before posting to the electrical forum. It doesn't seem to get much traffic. I bought a replacement headlight switch and the wiring is a little different. I have attached drawings for you to ponder. Obviously the Dash, Head, Tail, Park and Bat will wire the same. But where should I wire in the Dome and Stop? My signal light does not show here but it is wired to the Aux on the old switch so I will wire it to the Aux on the new one. Gater
Most stoplights work with the switch on or off so the "Bat" terminal would provide that. If you want the dome light to brighten or dim with the dash lights pigtail onto the "Dash" post. If you want it bright all the time hook to the tail light because it works with switch in either the headlight or parklight position. I like this because the dome light is dead when the light switch is off and won't be left on to run the battery down, easy to do if on in the daylight.
In the original setup, the stop and dome posts are hot all of the time, but each circuit is not complete until you activate the stop switch by hitting the brake pedal (in the case of the stop lights) or turning the dome light switch to the "on" position. With that said, here's my 3 cents (inflation, you know) I agree with Evan on hooking the stop to the "bat" terminal, but I see an inefficiency with hooking the dome light to the "dash" terminal. If you do that, the dome light will not work unless you have the light switch pulled out to either the parking light position or the headlight position and will have to be manually switched off unless you want the dome light on when you running down the streets at night. There will be times that you may need to use the dome light while not running at night, so to me it makes more sense to merely tie it in to the "bat" terminal.
Gater - Is that a tough job? I have just about isolated my dash / dome / tail light problems to that switch. According to the shop manual, it looks like the switch comes out easy enough but getting under the dash with a screw driver to detach and attach wires looks to be a bear. Any advice?
If you have the original switch there is a "button" or pin that you push down on the switch while you are gently pulling out on the handle. The handle will come out and you can use a screw driver to unscrew the retainer. Be careful not to let the screwdriver slip and scratch your dash. Once you have the switch loose you can let it hang down below the dash and work with the wires and terminals. Make sure you unhook the negative side of the battery or you may have some fireworks. The replacement switch that I got did not have the removable handle and there is not an easy way that I see to replace just the knob so it is a bear to try to use the new switch with the original knob. Hope this helps, Gater
That helps alot. Reading the shop manual, I got the part about the pin but, having not done it, I didn't realize that the whole thing would then hang down. That's a much better prospect than what I was envisioning.
