The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Dome light and speaker questions

Okay guys this is probably a couple of really dumb questions but I'm stumped so will ask anyway.
On my 57 GMC when I turn on the lights the interior dome light comes on. There are no door switches or other switches to turn it off. I have tried rotating the headlight switch and that doesn't work. Is this thing wired wrong or how in the heck do you turn the #@!&% thing off?
Second dumb question. I am trying to hook up the radio (factory NOS). There is 1 speaker wire coming from the radio and my after market speaker has 2 terminals, + and -. If the + side goes to the radio connection does the - side go to ground? If these questions give you a laugh then I made your day, if you can help me it will make my day. Thanks, Don

GMC, I can not help with the dome light, but if you want the quick fix, just add a switch to the light circut.

On the radio, the output from the radio goes to the + side of the speaker. The - speaker lug goes to ground.

sounds like you hooked the dome wire to the wrong terminal, tho a bad headlight switch might do that

Bill

For a quick solution to the dome light until you can figure it out just remove the bulb.

I received my shop manual today and checked out the section on lights. The dome light should turn off by rotating the headlight switch knob. It doesn't do that so I guess my switch is bad. Thanks for the replies, Don

Check to see if the terminal you have the light hooked to is hot all the time. On my switch the dome light has power all the time and a counter-clockwise turn of the knob to the stop makes the ground connection for the light, which is on a terminal at the front of the switch next to the guage light rheostat. I have read that the switch should turn off the power and the other side of light is just grounded. I dont know for sure which way is correct but mine works as I described.
Good luck
Jeff

I don't know what kind of speaker you have there but + and - have no meaning for a speaker. Most old auto radios have one wire active to the speaker and the other wire is ground. However, some speakers are internally grounded on one lead so it makes them polarity sensitive. I recently ran in to this with a new replacement from Jim Carter.

Speakers are also marked + and - to keep the phasing correct in multiple speaker installations. Probably not an issue in this case.

I agree w/ Red58
the dome light wire may be connected to the lights post or you have a faulty switch. try tracing the dome wire and see what it's connected to. It may also just have come in contact w/ the lights post and is wired correctly. In that case simply move the terminals apart and insulate if necessary.
the neg. speaker post should go to ground so just connect a short wire to the new mounting bolt (or any frame bolt) of the speaker.

Hooking the speaker (-) will work fine.

On the dome lamp - check to see if you have a bulb with only one filament (only 1 bump on the base) where you actually need a two filament bulb. I had some funny back-feed when I did this, symptoms were similar.