Unused Wires and Light Switch - want a dome light connection

[DuaneD]

Help I have been digging around in my 85 CJ light switch to figure out how to wire in a courtesy/dome light. I am thinking about installing a rear view mirror out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee that has the map lights built in. This will serve as my dome light which did not come with my OEM CJ.

I have looked at the pin out of the CJ light switch itself. The dome light ground pin has me baffled. There is a black wire coming into the connector that feeds the connector and a black wire coming out of the same connector with a round female connector on it. I cannot get a ground signal out of the unused female connector. Can anyone tell me where the black wire coming into the connector which goes to the ground pin on the light switch goes to/comes from? I unable to track it down. Tapped to the black unused connector is an orange wire with a male connector spade terminal in a rectangle plastic jacket with is like other 85 OEM connectors on this Jeep. I don't know where this goes either and there is no power on it either.

I am told there is another pin on the light switch itself "for dome light power"?? There are two white wires on the said connector. I can't trace them back far enough to figure out where they go. The wiring diagram in the Chilton's says they are for running lights??? The fuse block itself shows a 20 amp fuse for the dome lights. I can't figure out on the engine side of the firewall wall, what wire coming out of the bulkhead connector would be the dome light. Now, up above the fuse block on the inside, coming out of the massive wire bundle, there is another orange and black wire about six inches in length in one connector terminal. I have no idea what they where intended for from the factory. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks for your time and problem solving ability.

[Jim_Lou]

In a basic courtesy light circuit power goes through a fuse to the light. The ground side of the light then runs to buttons in each door and to the headlight switch. Any of those can complete the circuit to ground.

[IN2DEEP]

Not to distract you from what you are doing, but there are plenty of mirrors out there that have switched map lights on the bottom of the mirror.

I have one from an S-10 (I think - bought at swap meet) installed in my CJ5. This simplifies things a bit as you just need a power wire fed up to the mirror. It works pretty well. And it's a nice swap, and hardly noticeable.

[LEVE]

I took one out of a van and strapped it to the roll bar, powered off the courtesy lights. It works slicker'n snot.

[CJ7Taz]

Man, you need to learn to communicate better. That long rambling post and I still don’t know what you want.

Your Jeep should have courtesy light unless they have been removed. There is one under each corner of the dash.

Are you just looking for a circuit to tie the map lights into? The original courtesy lights were fed by an orange wire. It also runs back in the loom to the drivers rear corner into a plug for the dome light in the hardtop. If your map lights have switches on the mirror, you could tie into that orange wire.

If you are looking for a switched hot for them from the headlight switch, it ain’t there. Like Jim said, they feed a non-switched 12V hot to the lights and switch the ground, that way it only takes one wire to each door switch on a car. Remember that 4WD indicator switch you were working on? Same thing, the bulb was fed with a non-switched 12V and the switch provided the ground.

You weren’t clear on how you wanted the lights to work. Are you wanting to add switches at the door jambs?