The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Dome light rewire

The wiring for my dome light went out about 4 years ago. I do not do much driving at night so I did not really miss it. Got a wild hair to fix everything that needed fixing which was the dome light and the parking brake cable. I had to rewire the dome and it took me three days to fish all the wire thru that a pillar and around the cab. I used everything from string, wire, tree switches and everything I could get my hands on. At 75 years of age my neck has ever been so sore. That a pillar is no joke. I sure would have liked to give that fella at GM an ear full that designed that set up. If it goes out again I will just use a flashlight.

What year truck? Getting up there in age (turning 74 in a couple weeks) is no fun, especially when you are so use to working on your rig. Anyhoo, glad to hear the dome light is working again. Yes, many of us rarely use our dome lights but when you need to, it's nice to not have to fish for a flashlight.

The truck is a 58 apache 3100. Even with the dome light working it is still dark around the floorboard. Thinking about installing some tag lights under the dash to get just a bit more light around the floor. I have a split bench seat and they fold forward so behind the seat is ok with the dome. I had a 1950 3100 when I was about 19 and never worried about seeing back then had good eyes.

Cletis said that they used to start with a string and blow it through with compressed air.

I read that comment in a past post and tried it but it didn't work for me.

I gave up on my 59 and ran the wire down next to the windshield weather strip. The 58 .. that wire I kept and it worked

What is inside that a pillar. Does the wire go thru a hole or just thru an opening where the frender joins. Has anyone ever got a picture of whats up inside there?

If you have an old speedometer cable, try using that as a fish tape. When I did my '51, I used a regular electrician's fish tape I had bought for a project. It has a split near the dash that i needed to get inside of.

I tried everything on that pillar. Finally ran across a thread from several years ago where a fellow used a coat hanger. Tried and it worked like a champ first time. Stiff enough to handle the push and pull but flexible enough to make the turns.

And the wife wonders why I have so many wire coat hangars out in my shop

When I get to this point, I might be inclined to leave the section of OE wire in the pillar….and just splice new to the upstream and/or downstream side of the wire.

Sometimes I get too wound up trying to solve puzzles that don’t need to be solved. Perhaps I can avoid that temptation here.

If you have a wire in place now, just splice your new wire to it and pull the new wire in with the old one. Done deal.

I did that about 10 years ago and must have skinned the wire. Years later it started smoking just after I turned off the ignition. This time I pulled about 2 feet of extra wire and still managed to skin the ground, Went out that night around midnight and looked down across the yard and the dome light was on and would not turn off. One issue after another. I think I am going to wire in a toggle switch on the kick panel at the vent and just tie in the dome with some soft lamps under the dash to light up the floorboard along with the dome.