Interior Lights Staying On

[Walter R.]

My interior lights are staying on. I know it could be headlight switch or door jab switch. Just completed 10 month issue with this car, which I'm glad to say is solved and looking for help in steps to solve issue to eliminate time under the dash.

[Edward J.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Walter, Electric sometimes can be easy, dome lights staying on means the white wire that goes to pin switch is grounded somewhere or headlight switch. I would say the pin switch is not a likely cause, as this is the ground circuit to complete the circuit to make lamp work when door opens. so try taking a look around the underside of dash for the wiring to pin switch's and look for a pinched or grounded wire wire somewhere, if okay then head to the headlamp switch and remove and drop below dash and check the rheostat area for something grounding the circuit.

I just saw leafs post, good first step.

[Leif A.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Walter,
Have you tried to manually push the door switches in to see if that turns off the interior lights? That would be the easiest and quickest way to eliminate the switch.

[Donald H.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Have you tried to push in the door jamb switches with your finger or a screw driver? I had the problem with my 66 coupe. It was one of the door jamb switches. These things are very simple. What I found was that the inner sleeve (see arrow in the picture) had been pushed back and the front edge of the door was not depressing the switch far enough.

If you push in the switches and determine that it is one side or both, unscrew the switch carefully (you do not need to disconnect the wire). There should be enough slack in the wire to then pull the switch out through the hole enough to slide the inner sleeve out. In the picture I attached, the arrow points to the sleeve. This sleeve will slide out an in within the outer shell and thus move the switch contact in or out. It's an terference fit. I push mine most of the way, reinstalled the switch and when I first gently closed the door, it pushed the sleeve with inner switch button back to the correct location.

I'm assuming your switches are original with the MB stamp as in picture 2 below.

Don

[Walter R.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

I manually pushed in jamb switches with lights remaining on.

[Francis F.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Walter,I would drop the H/D lite switch down and out of the dash,the problem is with the rotary portion of the main switch,you can drop this switch out without going under the dashboard,which turns out to be a PAIN in the back.
In fact with this switch out and not in contact with any grounded metal the lights should go out.
give it a try,get back to me if you like ,for further help.
Francis

[Donald O.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Are you sure the headlight switch does not have the interior light switched ON ?

[Walter R.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Yes checked that early on.

[John F.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Walter,

There was an article in he Restorer a few issues back about resetting the "memory" on the jamb switches. When rehanging my doors after a repaint my jamb switches were not working either. I removed them and followed the instructions in the article on how to reset the gap on the switches. Very simple and now they work just fine.

[Francis F.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

Sorry I must not have been clear,the switch does have ihe interior lights on it.Buy removing the switch from the Metal dash board you will be removing the Ground side of the light circuit,for a test,and the result will be interior lights would not light.Tndicating a problem with the switch.
you can P M me if you like.
Francis

[Walter R.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

I removed switch from dash and interior lights stayed on.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Interior Lights Staying On

This is a long shot, but did you replace one of the bulbs when this started? The courtesy light should have 2 poles on the base. Another possibility would be a socket that has a shorted wire to the case.... Remove the sockets one at a time from the mount to isolate a faulty socket to see if the lights go out. Don't forget to close the doors during this test.