Courtesy light problems

[knever3]

I have had problems the last 10+ years since I built my truck.  The problem I have is the courtesy light operation.  The right footwell light and the pillar lights work fine, the left (or drivers side) one only comes on when I put my key in the ignition.  There are a couple of plugs under the dash that are identical, but I can't get the light to operate correctly.  The door buzzer doesn't work either, meaning it doesn't buzz when the lights are on, or when the key is in the ignition when a door is open.  The light sentinel doesn't work I got from an XJ either.  I would love if these would work as intended.  I've left my light on a couple times and killed my battery and I can't see anything in my truck because the lights are terrible.  I have a 4 pin harness that goes under the dash that the plugs are different and the wire codes are different as well.  I found out that one of these wires was for the torque converter lockup.  I spliced those together, but don't know what the others are for. 

 

The key in ignition turning my footwell light bulb on really makes me shake my head.  I have the FSM for my '87, and I have recently downloaded the one from a '90 which is the donor truck I used.  If anyone has any ideas they'd like to share to help me with this I'd appreciate it!! 

[eaglescout526]

Grounds, the door switches and the contact in the column come to mind for probable causes. 

[knever3]

Contact in the steering column, meaning the gray wire that senses key in?  It shouldn't be affecting the lights so I must have something wired wrong.

[eaglescout526]

Well it sort of is a wire. Grey? Now I dont know.
It should be a plastic, clear for non tilt and tan/white for tilt with copper contacts in the plastic housing that when the key is put in, the plastic in the cylinder will push on that contact to make the buzzer work when the door is open. Which leads me to the door switches. 

[schardein]

What color is your warning buzzer? Black or blue?  The blue warning buzzer has the headlights on warning, the black does not.  It's located just to the driver side of the fuse box.

The key in-door open warning could be a bad buzzer or a bad switch in the column.  That switch is often damaged, left out, or installed incorrectly when the steering column is serviced.  If you want to bench test the buzzer, you need a 12v power source and I can tell you the procedure.

For the sentinel system/ headlight delay box, check your fuse box.  Do you have a 25a fuse in the spot marked HDLPDLY?  That fuse has to be in place for the sentinel relay to work.

Is the cab wiring harness original for the 87, or is it from the 90?  The courtesy lights under the dash use a different connector.  84-89 early version connector, 90-96 later version.

Unplug the driver side courtesy light and use a voltmeter to check the two wires in the vehicle side connector.  One should be hot all the time (key on or key off, doesn't matter, B+ all the time).  The other should have a ground ONLY when the door is opened or when the headlight switch knob is turned full counterclockwise until it clicks.  If you have something different, note the wire colors coming out of the connector and post the results here.

[schardein]

I am running out of picture storage, but this is the key in sense switch for a tilt column.

[knever3]

Blue buzzer, I have it removed for the moment.  On a side note I've been looking for a steering column for over 2 years, everyone has one in Indiana and Ohio, but haven't found one in Michigan.  Floor shift Auto, no tilt, black, but I can paint.  My turn signal lever is droopy and leans to the left and it's so far into that mess and EXPENSIVE to buy I'd just rather change it out.  My ignition cylinder sticks on start, never had the ability to turn back to accessory to power the radio.  I changed the ignition above the column and still doesn't work.  I just want things to work like OEM, is that too much to ask! lol

[eaglescout526]

6 minutes ago, knever3 said:

just want things to work like OEM, is that too much to ask! lol

Yes. Lol. 

[knever3]

The fuse box outside is from the '90 to get rid of the C101 connector, inside may still be from the '87.  It's all a blur from 10 years ago now.  I'll have to go through my thread and under my dash to see.  I dread taking it ALL apart, if I get a good steering column than it will be totally worth it!!

[knever3]

Page 4 shows my wiring at the time, whew, what a mess I had to deal with.  You can see there is a fuse in the proper location here.

[pizzaman09]

A very random thing I ran across troubleshooting courtesy lights.  I had one of the door switch wires caught under one of the mount bolts for the parking brake pedal.  It squished the wire so hard it grounded to the chassis.  

 

Just food for though.