Hello all, I have a couple of oddities with the interior lights and "buzzer" of the 70 skylark I just purchased yesterday. The courtesy lights stay on if I leave the fuse in, I assume the first logical place to look for the problem would be the door switches. If one is bad, where do I get another? Will any auto part store have new ones or is this a specialty item that I will have to order from some place? Which brings me to the buzzing thing. When opening the driver's door the buzzer that alerts you that the key is in the ignition stays on. I've tried wiggling the ignition switch but no change. o No: So, it stands to reason that the driver's door switch works because of the buzzing which disappears promptly when I shut the driver's door. I did remove the passenger door switch and it looks like a simple mechanism but how do I know if it is bad? Thanks in advance, Chris
Here's how I'd go about this one: Remove the driver's side door switch, tape both spades seperately (if there's 2 of them) and close the door without allowing them to contact the body. If the problem goes away, assume it's the switch. Perhaps the hinge is worn and the switch is not opening. Otherwise, it may be a short to ground on the wire coming from the switch. Without a schematic, it may be hard to fix if what I described is not the problem. Good Luck, Cris.:Smarty:
ok, I may be ignorant, but what do you mean by taping the "spades"? I'm not sure what you are refering to when you say "spades" Assuming it is the switch, where can I get a new one? Also, the buzzing noise goes away when the driver's door is shut so doesn't that suggest that switch is working fine? Thanks, Chris
Light switch? not to insult anybody here. But first make sure the headlight switch is not turned all the way to cause the interior lights to be always on.
I am refering to the brass connectors on the end of the wire.:grin: If you remove the switch and these contact the ground, the lights will come on, and I assume the buzzer would come on as well.:bglasses:
Alright ou: thanks for clearing that up! I will check that out as soon as I have some free time. Oh, and Pat, yes the first thing I checked was the headlight switch, it is not "clicked" on yet the courtesy lights remain on. Thanks, Chris
I'm pretty sure the interior lights are wired so that the switches complete the ground to the body when the door is opened, which means that all of the wiring is "hot" all the time, right up to the contacts in the door switches. On a 2-door, I think the passenger side is the "far side" of the circuit (the driver's side has 2 leads, 1 for the lights and 1 for the buzzer), so start there. Pull the switch from the body, and if the light goes out, there's your culprit. If isolating all of the switches and wire contacts from the body doesn't do it, you've got a short-to-ground somewhere in the wiring itself. Unless somebody's been hacking on the wiring, that's not too likely. Also, the light switches should be available at any decent parts place, like NAPA, etc. BTW, I found that a '60's GM interior light switch also works for the parking brake light switch on a '71 LeSabre, there are a lot of versions of switches...
Buzzers Buzzers - not sure about your car exactly, but on mine (71 LeSabre) the buzzer is also the horn relay. Durned thing's wired so that 2 things have to happen for the buzzer to sound off: 1. Driver's door open, and 2. key in ignition switch far enough to close tiny switch. (THAT'S what the 2 leads on the driver's door switch are for!!! Have to edit above post) Sounds like the tiny switch in your ignition is sticking closed. Try some WD-40, or do what I did. Pull the column, and remove that durned tiny switch! Pulling the wheel is the hardest part, and there are small parts to keep track of, but it's not too hard, especially if you have a chassis manual. While I was in there, I also removed the steering wheel lock. Security isn't a major concern around here, and I was tired of the silly thing.
