Hopefully this will be the last post on the courtesy light electrical gremlins. It looks like there were two independent – and intermittent! – problems: prongs in the light socket touching the shell and a door switch not long enough to function reliably.
In the last post I described insulating the light socket to prevent potential shorting. A shim on the door provided a temporary fix to the door switch problem.
For a permanent fix I ordered a pair of door switches from Rock Auto. When installing them I replaced the bullet connector on the end of the wire just to be sure. And… The door wouldn’t close. The new door switches were too long. Crud!
When I had described the problem on Garage Journal several people had claimed that door switches were adjustable – the shaft could be extended. The Rock Auto switches weren’t adjustable – but the original factory switches were!
Of course the adjustment on the factory switches was frozen. Nothing that a vise, various tools, and strong language couldn’t overcome! With the shaft extended to what looked like a reasonable length there was nothing left but to screw it in place, hook it up, cross my fingers, and close the door.
Success! The switch now works reliably when opening and closing the door!
With two independent problems fixed I hope this problem is fixed for good! Time will tell…