Console lights

[easyrider]

I've been having a few problems with my console lights that you, guys have been helping me with, but I've gotten caught up in a disagreement with a guy at the parts house. The courtesy lights on my console use a 90 bulb, which has 2 contacts and single filament. After tracing the wiring, I found a yellow and a pink wire going to the bulb and as I see it, one wire is from the head light switch to turn on the interior lights and one wire is from the door switch to turn on interior lights when the doors are opened. So, it would seem to me that the bulb grounds to the socket and you have 2 hot wire. The guy at the parts house said that one of the contacts was a ground and the other was hot, so he took a battery and put the hot to one contact and negative to the other and the bulb lit up. My thinking is that he just completed a circuit with the bulb being like a wire between the two points. Anyway, I think my problem in the console is a ground problem, but anyone out there had any problems like this? Anybody know this bulb (90) and how it works? Sorry for the tirade, but it got under my skin. I've never seen a bulb that didn't ground through the case to socket contact. Thanks for listening!

 

[5.7 hemi]

Just asking here, but how would the console socket ground if the console itself is fiberglass?

 

[440roadrunner]

He is right. Your overhead dome light is the same deal. All the dome type lights, including trunk light if equipped, are a single filament, dual contact bulb. The bulb shell and the lamp socket do nothing except mechanically support the bulb

For the dome / courtesy lamps, one contact of the bulb is fed power, hot all the time. The other side is yellow and goes to the door switches and headlight switch courtesy lamp "twist" control.

So if a door is opened, or if you twist the light switch knob, the yellow wire is grounded, completing the circuit.

 

[65 Plymouth Satellite 426]

Just asking here, but how would the console socket ground if the console itself is fiberglass?

Good Question?

 

[easyrider]

I didn't say that I couldn't be wrong, but I've never seen a bulb that the casing wasn't also the ground. So, why is the door and head light switch working the back dome lights, but not the console? This is the only place I've found people knowledgeable about these little problems and can offer solutions. Thanks for the information. What is your best idea of how to fix this problem?

 

[Red63440]

5.7 hemi told you...the console is fiberglass, everything else is grounded to metal which is why they are working. If you take the socket thats in the console and ground it, it will work. You need to have an external ground for the console lights to work so either add a ground or repair/connect the one that you already have.:toothy5:
Tell ya what..get a length of wire with an alligator clip at each end, connect one end to a good known ground and attach the other end to the light body...bet your console light works, use the wire to test both lights.

 

[easyrider]

Just a quick reply. I found my problem with the suggestions and advice of you here in this forum. I had a ground at the passengers side kick panel and it branched over to the console. So, somewhere under the carpet from point A to point B the ground was broken. So, I jumped a wire from the kick panel to the console and I have console lights. Thanks again to everyone that gave me a little nudge in the right direction!!

 

[Red63440]

Glad ya got it.....