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show your fix for busted old-style cargo lights

ehall

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
The little black chicklet button on my '91 cargo light is seized up. I went to the junkyard for some other stuff today, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was also seized. On the way home I thought about stopping at the dealer to order, but then realized that the same crap switch would just die on me again.

Surely some of you have figured out good replacements for these things that integrate with the headliner and don't look too ghetto fab. Show me what you've got and I'll stop calling you shirley
 
Hey Eric, I know you've dumped a ton of work into that thing...have you ever thought about going to a 97+ headliner? The domes are much better in those and they have the integrated speaker bar too. Might be something to consider as usually they're cheap at junkyards if the ones around you have any 97+ XJs.
 
That's an option. Unfortunately I looked at a couple of those and didn't find any that worked either. The best I found was one in a WJ, where the rear cover plate had the integrated light. I have to go back tomorrow and will pull it out to see if it fits the XJ size, but I'm 99% sure it won't.
 
That's an option. Unfortunately I looked at a couple of those and didn't find any that worked either. The best I found was one in a WJ, where the rear cover plate had the integrated light. I have to go back tomorrow and will pull it out to see if it fits the XJ size, but I'm 99% sure it won't.
You can't use the 97+ domelights without the newer headliner as well. I have 97+ headliners in my 90 and in my buddy's 87; they do work if you get the whole headliner, and the domelights are plug n play IIRC. PM me if you want details.
 
I've only really paid attention to a 96,97, 99, and 00. The 96 and 97 had the same lights, whereas the 99 and 00 used the newer style lights. They are not plug and play (the positives are swapped between my 97 and a 99, real simple fix). I pulled mine out, and put some lights in from a 99. It's a sketchy install, but the lighting is much better. I wasn't aware that the mountings for the light had changed, and didn't have the time or materials to rework things to make it look OEM. You would probably have to be an XJ guy to realize it's a hackjob, but it is. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow to illustrate what I mean.

<edit> I think I do have an early 97, which means I might have old and new parts. I hate engineers.
 
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I've only really paid attention to a 96,97, 99, and 00. The 96 and 97 had the same lights, whereas the 99 and 00 used the newer style lights. They are not plug and play (the positives are swapped between my 97 and a 99, real simple fix). I pulled mine out, and put some lights in from a 99. It's a sketchy install, but the lighting is much better. I wasn't aware that the mountings for the light had changed, and didn't have the time or materials to rework things to make it look OEM. You would probably have to be an XJ guy to realize it's a hackjob, but it is. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow to illustrate what I mean.
Ahh pardon me it is 97.5+ with the headliner and domelights. Most 97s did have the older style but after 98 for sure it was all the newer stuff. The rear dome light in the newer ones is just held up by the headliner itself since it's reinforced back in that area, there is no bracket required. The newer front dome light requires a new bracket that is riveted onto the front crossmember. It would be worth the work for you IMO with how nice you've made that thing Eric, the lighting improves immensely.
 
I've built a hybrid overhead console that includes map lights for the passenger seat, so putting the newer light into the cargo area would actually look right. I'll see if I can find one that works when I go back tomorrow. The whole light is a push switch, right?

Are the holes in the headliner the same size? What is a good hack for a backing plate?

Thanks!
 
In hindsight, I'd say pull the speaker bar, do a little cutting and glassing, then recover the bar. Basically, IIRC, the newer lights are shorter, wider, and don't use the studs/pal nuts to mount. I mounted mine turned 90* to minimize the cutting/gaps. Works better than it looks is the nicest thing I can say about it. It's on my "one of these days" list. I'll try to get some pics to illustrate tomorrow.
 
I installed a bigger dome light on my 97's speaker bar a while back. cut the new hole, mounted a larger light from a minivan and then glassed over everything because the darn speaker bar ended up cracking in the middle while remounting...
problem with mine now is the glass made it heavier, and without the pins that went into the old light and had the pressure washers on them.... the middle bounces and has a hap at the top all the time. looks kinda silly, although I don't care much as it fits in with my style.
 
I bypassed the melted switch in my 96 by adding a SPST Toggle switch similar to the one below:
450px-On-Off_Switch.jpg


It's on the back of the cargo light, and still used for the original purpose of shutting off the light when the back hatch is left on for extended periods. Sorry, no pics.

I'm considering adding a light to the inside of the rear hatch though - our Mercury Villager had one in the rear hatch that lit the ground around the back VERY well when the hatch was open.

Jim www.yuccaman.com
 
I put a grand cherokee rearview mirror in my 98, it has two integrated map lights in it, got it for free, the downside is that it only has one switch, GM put one in their cars, 95 Olds had one, that had two switches, one for each light. If I was going to do anything to the rear I'd hit an RV or boating supply store, they have a large selection of add on lights like that in all kinds of styles, some even have aux cig lighter plugs built in.
Back in the late 70's when I was customizing vans I used map lights all over the place, they were on swivels inside the bases and had two switches, one for each light on the doubles but singles were also available.
 
I think NAPA has a light that will work (have to go back with the actual cargo light).

Wiring questions since I do not remember... I know the ground circuit is closed when the latch on the hatch is opened, but I don't remember if that ground circuit is for the cargo light and passenger lights, or just the cargo light? Also, does the cargo light switch only turn that light off, or does it cut ground to the entire circuit ? Thanks
 
Napa 549SWD which I picked up this evening

54792.jpg


It's the same length as the original but a little narrower. It has a lightweight metal backing plate (which is not the gasket shown in the pic), so by cutting some extra sheet metal to make a secondary backing plate I should be able to mount it to the factory studs and have it cover the hole in the headliner alright. Only other possible problems are that it is a little taller (maybe 1/2") and it is two wire instead of three.
 
Sorry I couldn't get any decent pics, but it looks like you've got a workaround in progress.

The lights operate in unison, by the way. I scribbled the color coding down for the new and old wiring, but I can't find that either. Won't take you a minute with a DMM to sort that out though.

What have you got in mind for powering the cargo light? Just going to use the hatch circuit, and ignore the jamb switches?
 
What I want is for the work lights to be on when (1) the hatch is opened and (2) when the cargo light is on. If only one of those conditions is met the work lights should stay off.

There's no need for a dedicated jamb switch since the latch in the hatch already has a ground switch in it--when the latch is released from the striker, a spring-loaded lever pops out and closes the ground circuit for the cargo lights (and maybe the passenger lights dunno). Since that switch is is already in the hatch I can reuse it easily.

I will also have to run a power wire for the lights into the hatch. What I would like to do is just reuse the cargo light switch for the power. I don't know how the cargo light is wired up though, or what other lights are controlled by that circuit, so I need to find out.
 
If you didn't use the wire coming from the dimmer/door jamb switches (I think it's the center conductor, looking at the old assembly), you should be able to wire any additional hatch lighting right in with the cargo light (wired in parallel, after the switch in the new cargo light)- they'd only come on with the cargo light, and only when the hatch is open.
 
Alright I got the stock lamp/switch/wiring figured out. It has one power wire (pink at harness), and two ground wires.

One of the ground wires (yellow at harness) is on the same ground circuit as the other interior lights, so when you open any of the passenger doors or twist the headlight knob, the cargo light comes on with all of the others.

The other ground wire (violet w/ yellow stripe at harness) is the hatch ground switch in the latch assembly. This wire then goes into the switch in the cargo light (the chicklet button that is frozen), however it also feeds the rest of the cabin light ground. In one position, opening the hatch will close the ground circuit and all of the interior lights will come on, but in the other position the ground circuit is interrupted at the cargo lamp and none of the interior lights come on. [This is all with the '91, so whoever finds this thread in a search later take note.]

If I want to drive work lights in the hatch from the cargo lamp switch, basically all I need to do is run power into the hatch and tap it into the latch ground, then whenever the hatch is open and the cargo lamp is on the lights will come on. However this would also mean all of the other interior lights would be active too (the cargo lamp switch activates them all), and I don't really want to do that.

Another option would be to run power into the hatch, with a separate switch on that power lead, then when the hatch was open I could use the cargo lamp for interior lights and the dedicated switch for work lights. I still do not like that though, since if I have the work lights on I will probably want the cargo light on too, but will not want all of the other interior lights on.

So... what I am going to try is taking the cargo light switch off the interior light circuit, and tying the work lights into the remaining circuit. This way I can turn the work lights and cargo light off and on together, with both of them being fed by the latch switch. I am trying to figure out if I can also keep the cargo light on the other ground circuit, so that I can turn it off and on by rotating the headlight knob or opening a passenger door. I think I will need a diode to make this work.
 
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