Electrical problem and question

[Spartan]

I got most of my lighting extras working.  Truck light works great, glove box light works good and the map light turns on and off.   figured the ignition light plugs into the yellow w/ black stripe wire on the map light.  The map light can be turned on and off at the switch but when it is off and the door is open, the light does not come on, the ignition light doesn't either.  There is a brown wire on the map light that I don't have a home for either.  I am guessing if these do all plug together that its the delay switch thats bad.  Anyone ever deal with this problem?  If the delay switch is bad, who sells them?   I bought this map light off e-bay so I am not sure if the relay works.

Also, I put my IP back in and it looks sweet.  The problem I have right now is that I can only get the dimmer to work if its almost to where I put the dome light on.  If I dim it down the lights go off imediately.  If nothing else, I am getting piles of experience doing all this stuff myself   Anyway, any help is greatly appreciated.

[8WHEELER]

The Map light should not come on when opening the door only when turning the switch to the on position.
Yes the time delay relay could have gone bad, they are thermal and as soon as the unit gets hot it shuts
off the light, so after hundreds of cycles it can go bad.
Here is more info on it
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,4487.0.html

Dan

[Spartan]

hmmm.  I thought the map light came on when the door was open, thats why it was tied into the door switch...if not, then its working right .     If the ignition light does into map harness then that switch is bad.  I will try to get another one.  Thanks.

[Plumcrazy]

A 69 may be different but the map light comes on in my 70 when I open the door.

[y3chargerrt]

My map light comes on when the door is open to on my 69.

[Nacho-RT74]

also on mine

[Spartan]

Does yours have the delay switch in the harness?

[Plumcrazy]

Does yours have the delay switch in the harness?

Yes

[AKcharger]

mine too, with no delay switch

[8WHEELER]

  my 68 map light comes on as well when opening the door  don't know what I was thinking.

Dan

[Nacho-RT74]

delay time flasher has nothing to do with map light, just with seatbelt warning ( except 74 ) and ignition key courtesy light

[8WHEELER]

Correct, 68 & 69 has a time delay relay for the ignition light only.

Dan

[Spartan]

ok.  That means I have something not wired right.  There was a plug-in brown wire I couldn't find a home for, everything else had a home....

[Nacho-RT74]

I don't know on earliers, wiring diagrams are around there but I will talk by my own experience, and thinking that mostly code colors wires are the same around the years this is MY true:

Map light wires are on my car:
-black for constant ground that arrives to map light switch to get on or off the map ligh anytime. This wire has an eyebolt threaded terminal to bolt on dash metallic frame.
-yellow is the door switch ground to light one the map light when door is open. On my car os bullet male terminal to connect on door ground source on underdash wiring, also yellow wire with black plug female bullet kind.
-Pink is constant positive source, also bullet kind to conect on underdash wiring constant source plug.

Delay time flasher is wired with yellow and pink wires. Pink is also constant source. It has two yellow wires but BOTH work different. One is door ground and is JUST AN input signal to flasher to light on the ignition key light. doesn't drive really power, just a signal. The other yellow wire is the OUTPUT power to ignition key light and is positive, not ground. Ground is feeded by socket chassis.

About dimmer stuff. it could be just sulfated ballast resisitor on dimmer itself. You could just clean or replace it. BUT COULD ALSO TO BE broken resistor spring, so only solution would be replace it.

[Spartan]

Almost seems like the dimmer is not adjusted to make contact until the last end.  I will try to clean it up again.  I didn't see any ground on my harness w/ an eyelet. My electrical diagram does not have the accessories on it unfortunately.  I am reviewing a 68 in case it shows something.

Thanks for the info.

[Nacho-RT74]

well but you can allways trace the wiring from the origin... I mean the map light itself. look at its own switch wires colors. Same about every accesories even not on diagrams.

[Spartan]

Ya, that how I put it in, sort of connected the dots, matched the wire colors and plugged them in.

[Ghoste]

The dimmer could just have corrosion on it.  I have also seen a switch where the wire for the variable portion (it fits in there like a spring coiled around the switch) was just worn out and loose and when the dimmer was backed off it would push the "spring" away from the contact arm and leave it unconnected from the "spring".  That sounds confusing but if you take the switch out and look at it, it should make more sense.