Courtesy Lights and Instrument Dimmer

Hello -

I've got a 19 YJ, and the instrument lights turn off when the rheostat dimmer is full "on".
I vaguely remember, from my last YJ, that rolling the rheostat full "on" will turn on the floor courtesy lights too.

If anyone has an idea on that, I'd appreciate it.

A clue may be the passenger courtesy light harness. It attaches to the door switch, and has 2 connectors. One of which is unconnected.

If I can connect that, it may fix my issue. And if not, well, at least the connector isn't floating about in the wind.
Any ideas?
Thanks

 

Try putting the wire back on and see if that makes a difference. YJ dimmer switches are notorious for corrosion. I've attached a couple of photos. Switch is held together by 2 metal clips that just push off. Clean all of the corroded green copper gently with emery cloth. May as well clean yours, if you buy a used one it'll have the same problem.

 

Good idea. I'll pull it off and try to clean that up. That may help. I was fiddling with it last night waiting for my son to get out of work - and I kept rocking it back and forth, and eventually in some spots the connection got made. So I think your idea on cleaning it makes a lot of sense.

As for the wires - I don't know where they plug into, is the trouble. I can't see or find the right place to plug it in.

I found the parts in the parts catalog, and they seem to be different pictures (#1 and #14), but the part #s are the same? Quite unusual.

 

Factory (dirty word) stuff. One of mine was gone, one broken. I cut the connectors off and replaced mine with little led pods (rock lights).
Photo on right is the passenger side. The single wire driver side (or 2 single plugs on passenger) go to the door pin switches. The plugs under the dash has 2 wires, power from fuse block and ground that goes to light. One of the wires in the plug that comes from under dash should have constant 12 volt positive. Passenger also has a jumper wire that runs ground to driver side light so both lights come on with either door open which is why it has an extra door pin wire. In the end that comes from under dash: You should have one pin that meters constant 12v + and one pin that is grounded only when either door is opened or when the dimmer switch is rolled to on. The door pin ground connection is knocked down to the door limiting strap bolts. The door pin switches or the dimmer switch sends ground to both lights.
If you have a rear hard top light it works the same way, constant power and there is a single wire on driver side running to the common ground for the door lights so it also comes on with doors or dimmer.
My Jeep doesn't have an affectionate nickname, but my Fluke meter does.

 

Pulled out rheostat, polished and cleaned everything with some hand-pumice cleaner (Gojo), cleaned it off, dielectric grease... Works great. Thanks!

 

Yep, those dimmers can get pretty nasty inside. Gojo! Never thought of that but definitely gonna try it. Thanks for the tip.