Dome light fix - Rear hatch snafu

[SanDiegoOverland]

Hey all.
I was dealing with an intermittant dome light problem, and I couldn't seem to figure it out. Well, last night, as I was unloading after
a day at the beach, in the dark, I saw a spark.

I looked up, and saw the tiniest of sparks again, inside the rear hatch latch mechanism.

Lo and behold, once I got an insulated screwdriver and a penlight, I found the source of the dome light issue. The latch has a switch that rides on a springloaded plunger. This switch is fed by a small pigtail/plug via a blade connection.

Well, after 17 years, this blade connection had pulled out of the switch housing and was arc'ing against the spring that the switch rides on and was closing the circuit. I could see little burn/weld marks all over the inside of the latch. I went ahead and pulled the blade connection out of the pigtail, wrapped the plug in electrical tape(unecessary probably, cuz its an insulated plug end) and replaced it inside the latch.

I figure, all I'm losing is the hatches ability to turn the dome light on, which I don't want anyways, cuz its usually open while camping or tailgating, and I've always worried about running the battery down...

So, I know its been brought up before, I just though I'd share. I imagined the problem to be much worse than it actually was..haha!

There's one thing off my to-do list.

Regards,
Brian

 

[Andy Steiner]

I figure, all I'm losing is the hatches ability to turn the dome light on, which I don't want anyways, cuz its usually open while camping or tailgating, and I've always worried about running the battery down...

This may be a year/model related feature, but my 1999 Limited allows me to turn off all the dome lights by pressing the lens of the light at the hatch. It's a switch on my year XJ. May be as well on yours...

 

[SanDiegoOverland]

This may be a year/model related feature, but my 1999 Limited allows me to turn off all the dome lights by pressing the lens of the light at the hatch. It's a switch on my year XJ. May be as well on yours...

On my 1992 the button on the rear cargo light only operates the cargo light, not the others?

 

[GSequoia]

This may be a year/model related feature, but my 1999 Limited allows me to turn off all the dome lights by pressing the lens of the light at the hatch. It's a switch on my year XJ. May be as well on yours...

Yup.

If you have a rear cargo light there is a black button on it. This goes to a stupid switch that is probably broken which cancels the dome lamp when the hatch is open.

DId I mention it was stupid?

Every one of my XJs had this switch not work. There is good news though! The hole is the same size as a standard small black rocker switch (about 1/2" x 1/4" size), just a litlte bit of shaving off plastic and it'll slip right in and work forever. It even looks OEM clean.

By the way - A universal dome lamp cancel switch (no dome for any doors) is one switch the XJ is lacking.