Mirror Lighting Wiring Questions...Long.

Well, I've stumped myself on this one. About a year ago when I put my overhead console in, I sacrificed the lighted visor mirrors to have the lights in the console powered. Here is what I have gathered so far. I have my old dome light/lighted mirror harness which consists of a black, pink, and black/white wire. The pink wire is then joined by two fat pink wires which power the visor mirror lights.The plug which is now supplying power to the lights on the OHC used to be the power source for the visor mirrors and dome light. The overhead console plug that is now plugged into the old dome light plug has a pink(which is power), a yellow(which I believe is ground), a blue and orange wire(which should be the dimmer switch), and black(no idea, another ground?). So, it goes like this.

Hot End
Pink
Black
Black/White

Old Dome Light Mirror Light Harness
Pink<Two fat mirror wires
Black
Black/White

OHC End
Pink
Black
Yellow
Blue/Orange

My first question is where can I get power for the mirrors from? I tried to ground the black on the mirror harness to the yellow on the OHC and the pink to the pink on the OHC but it didn't work. Am I best to just find an always hot power source? My other question is the dimmer switch isn't working and right now my brain is fried past comprehension of why that is. Can someone clear that up for me? If you've taken the time to read this, thanks for that, and for anyone that can help me well, please do.
TIA,
Collin

Collin, your wiring harness for the overhead console should have 2 wires (pink) that run to each of the vanity lights in the sunvisors. If they are not there, they were probably torn off the harness when it was removed from the vehicle.
I would try to strip back some of the black tape that the harness is wrapped in and see if you can find the ends of the torn off wires.

Here's a pic of a console I sold on ebay. You can see the 2 pink wires; one comes out near the bottom and the other is a much shorter run since the passenger sunvisor is already in line with the overhead consoles wiring. Both black connectors for the visors can been seen at the very top.

The pink wires did get torn off during removal. Do you have any idea what plug they were a part of? And I'm still confused on why my OHC doesn't dim with the headlight switch because my old dome light did. Was there just something that changed or..?

Your dome light shouldn't have dimmed when you turned on your headlights but the display on the console should (at least it does on 97+).

I think the easiest way to solve you problem is to remove the console harness and strip back the wiring tape until you find where the pink wires were torn off. Then just extend them back up to the visors. I had to do the same thing when I added the overhead console to my wifes XJ.

Hey Todd,
Thanks a lot for the info. First off I want to clear the dome light thing up. I dont think it dimmed when I turned the headlights on, but it would dim when I had like one of the doors open and I turned the headlight switch. I believe when I was putting the overhead console in I checked to see and there was just like 4 inches of the pink wire left, but neither side was connected to anything. I have a picture attached below of the splice I was referring to where the one pink wire is connected with the two fat pink ones(keep in mind this is in my old harness). I was wondering do you think it is possible to splice part of my old harness into the OHC harness? And if so, which wires do you think I need to splice?

Yeah just make sure you don't cross any wires and short something out.

I had to do the same thing when I did the overhead in my 97 a while back. I had a harness from a 98 that wouldn't plug into my 97 so I spliced together bits and pieces of each so that everything would work. It was a pain in the butt.
When I did my wife console last month, I got lucky and worked out a trade to get a 97 harness; much easier the second time around.

Cool thanks a lot. I think I'll probably end up either trying to get a harness from a 90 that is complete(my harness is from a 94 as the OHC is) or just splicing the wires in.

CollinM said:

Cool thanks a lot. I think I'll probably end up either trying to get a harness from a 90 that is complete(my harness is from a 94 as the OHC is) or just splicing the wires in.

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Hey Colin, did you get this worked out? Was actually working on my write up of my overhead console tonight. Go figure! [almost done actually]
On the subject on hand, I found in the '91 overhead, there was a thick pink wire in the wiring harness that went to both mirror visors which attached to the connector in them respectively. Once the visor is screwed into place, that's how it grounds so the vanity mirror lights work. If its not screwed into place, it they won't work. I left all my original wiring intact just in case, and who knows what I may need down the road. Didnt hook up my drivers' side though as wiht my CD's there, no point in doing so, although it would have been easy to do, as the harness from the donor basically had the one wire split into two. One for each vanity mirror.

Cykaaro you are a lifesaver man. I wondered how the friggin things grounded and my dad suggested maybe they grounded to the roof but I wasn't sure. That definitely explains why I wasn't getting them to light up. Thanks again.

CollinM said:

Cykaaro you are a lifesaver man. I wondered how the friggin things grounded and my dad suggested maybe they grounded to the roof but I wasn't sure. That definitely explains why I wasn't getting them to light up. Thanks again.

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lol! I guess I should have mentioned that. :speepin:

JEEPZZ said:

lol! I guess I should have mentioned that. :speepin:

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It's all good, I know its hard to think of everything at once. I finally got them working and minus taking down the front half of the headliner and overhead console this was the easiest thing I've done in a while to the Jeep. All it needed was the pink wire to be touched to a power source and grounded to the roof and it was good to go. Thanks for the help fellas.
Collin

Glad ya got it going! I figured out a lot of the wiring by checking out where what went where while at the wreckers. Left all my original wiring as is in case I ever want or need in the future for something.

I've found that a lot of things are simply ground to the frame somewhere or other.