Dome light replacement on 70 Wagoneer?

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Chubbinius
Posts: 351
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:33 am
Location: SD, CA

Dome light replacement on 70 Wagoneer?

Post by Chubbinius »

So, I'm trying to keep the chances to break something to a minimum...need to replace my dome light and hoping to leave the original headliner installed while doing it.

True Confession-I was trying to troubleshoot the old dome light in "the Pig" (my 70 Wagoneer) because it would not illuminate, I was getting power across it from both ends (on the test light) with the bulb in, no power with it out. I was trying to see if the ground wire had a break and it ended up breaking alright...pulled right apart in the pillar. :oops:

I ordered a new one with the chrome base (shiny) from BJs and need to install it. Has anyone put in a new one without removing the headliner? (Concerned about breaking something by trying to pull the original headliner out to run the wires.) I think a fish tape for pulling wires might work; has anyone used one to fish wires up or down the driver's pillar? I can't find if there are wire clips in the pillars in the parts manual or on the Detroit Ironworks CDs. I appreciate any tips or tricks or advice you might offer.
1970 1414X Wagoneer "The Pig"
-Custom Special
-Dauntless 350 V8
-D27 front/D44 rear
2006 XK (65th Ann Edition)-DD

letank
Posts: 4010
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:16 pm
Location: SF bay area

Re: Dome light replacement on 70 Wagoneer?

Post by letank »

Chubbinius wrote:So, I'm trying to keep the chances to break something to a minimum...need to replace my dome light and hoping to leave the original headliner installed while doing it.

True Confession-I was trying to troubleshoot the old dome light in "the Pig" (my 70 Wagoneer) because it would not illuminate, I was getting power across it from both ends (on the test light) with the bulb in, no power with it out. I was trying to see if the ground wire had a break and it ended up breaking alright...pulled right apart in the pillar. :oops:

I ordered a new one with the chrome base (shiny) from BJs and need to install it. Has anyone put in a new one without removing the headliner? (Concerned about breaking something by trying to pull the original headliner out to run the wires.) I think a fish tape for pulling wires might work; has anyone used one to fish wires up or down the driver's pillar? I can't find if there are wire clips in the pillars in the parts manual or on the Detroit Ironworks CDs. I appreciate any tips or tricks or advice you might offer.
taking a stab at it, as all FSJ are more or less built alike, you can fish the wire thru the b pillar -but it looks like an expedition.

Otherwise a battery operated LED with a 9v battery is the other option. In my case because of those finicky wires or shorts or long hours with the doors opened, I have been without domed lights or many years, in fact the 74 did not have the door switches. The 85 had the fused removed and never bothered to install bulbs
Michel
74 wag (349 Kmiles... parked, next step is a rust free body)
85 Gwag (229 Kmiles... the running test lab)
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Topic author
Chubbinius
Posts: 351
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:33 am
Location: SD, CA

Re: Dome light replacement on 70 Wagoneer?

Post by Chubbinius »

letank wrote:
taking a stab at it, as all FSJ are more or less built alike, you can fish the wire thru the b pillar -but it looks like an expedition.

Otherwise a battery operated LED with a 9v battery is the other option. In my case because of those finicky wires or shorts or long hours with the doors opened, I have been without domed lights or many years, in fact the 74 did not have the door switches. The 85 had the fused removed and never bothered to install bulbs
Haha, I thought it might be a bit of a fish and pray...just figured I'd ask so I don't end up with about 4-6 feet of a fishing tape stuck down the pillar. If I can't get the wires to feed back down, I might cobble a 9v LED into the dome housing and make it work. Thanks!
1970 1414X Wagoneer "The Pig"
-Custom Special
-Dauntless 350 V8
-D27 front/D44 rear
2006 XK (65th Ann Edition)-DD

letank
Posts: 4010
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:16 pm
Location: SF bay area

Re: Dome light replacement on 70 Wagoneer?

Post by letank »

Chubbinius wrote:
letank wrote:
taking a stab at it, as all FSJ are more or less built alike, you can fish the wire thru the b pillar -but it looks like an expedition.

Otherwise a battery operated LED with a 9v battery is the other option. In my case because of those finicky wires or shorts or long hours with the doors opened, I have been without domed lights or many years, in fact the 74 did not have the door switches. The 85 had the fused removed and never bothered to install bulbs
Haha, I thought it might be a bit of a fish and pray...just figured I'd ask so I don't end up with about 4-6 feet of a fishing tape stuck down the pillar. If I can't get the wires to feed back down, I might cobble a 9v LED into the dome housing and make it work. Thanks!

Not too sure about the right voltage for LED, the 9v came to a discussion about powering the glove box door clock from the kaiser jeep era.
Michel
74 wag (349 Kmiles... parked, next step is a rust free body)
85 Gwag (229 Kmiles... the running test lab)
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