IML: '60 Imperial dome light stays on

[Joe Strickland <jwstrick426@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Rob van der Es" <R.vdes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Robert;

After your reply I decided to investigate some more.  I have a '62 and 
it operates just like the '60 models.  I am sure the wiring is the same. 
 The back doors operate the overhead dome light and there is a switch 
on the left side headliner that activates it manually.

My car has been sitting for years and does not even have a battery in 
it.  I bought new 1004 lamps and replaced the map light and the dome 
light.  I connected 12VDC to the battery leads from a power supply I 
have.  To my surprise the dome light in my car also was on continually. 
 I discovered that the right hand automatic switch near the bottom of 
the center pillar was the culprit.  I was able to push it in by hand and 
make the dome light go off with the door open.  When the door was 
closed, the dome light remained on.  I found that if I folded the paper 
from the new 1004 lamps twice and placed it between the front edge of 
the rear door and the automatic switch button/pin that it would go off. 
 What that means is that the automatic switch is not touching the metal 
of the front part of the rear door enough to make it open up, thereby 
breaking the ground of the dome lamp.  A cure for this would be to 
remove the automatic switch (it un-screws)and place one or more metal 
washers between the nut head of the switch and the metal of the center 
pillar.  Either the head of the automatic switch pin has worn down or 
else the door hinges have developed enough play that the automatic 
switch no longer causes the dome lamp to go off.

I traced out the circuit in the service manual.  It is difficult to 
follow since it is scattered on two separate pages.  I am working on a 
single page schematic that shows both the dome light and map light 
circuits if you are interested.  Both the map light and the dome light 
are fed by a 9 amp fuse in the fuse box.

It also turned out that the '62 Imperial electrical schematics were in 
error by not showing the connection from the dome lamp to the instrument 
panel and fuse block wiring, although we know the connection exists! 
The '62 Chrysler schematic does show the interconnection to the 
instrument panel wiring on those models.  someone in the 
Chrysler/Imperial documentation group was asleep on that issue.

From previous experience I found that the automatic switches for 
dome/map lamp circuits can be worn enough that the insulation that opens 
the circuit when the pin is depressed that it won't always open the lamp 
circuits up.  When that is the case, the only solution is to replace the 
automatic door switch.

As part of my investigation I discovered that my'62 map light switch had 
come apart and I am having to locate a replacement.  The map light works 
OK by opening the doors, but the manual switch has come completely apart 
inside the dash area.

Joe Strickland


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