Electrical 1987 Map Light

[Riley Barth]

I have a 87 notch and the map light isn’t working. The dome light works perfectly fine, but not the map. I bought changed the bulb and bought another unit, but no dice. Only thing I can think of is the plastic part that the screw goes in is cracked.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Let me know if anyone has run into this!

 

[AeroCoupe]

Have you checked for 12V?

 

[Riley Barth]

So I hooked up the red end of my multimeter to that hole where the screw goes into the plastic pieces and ground the black end of the multimeter to the roof it was reading 10.94 and I did the same to the dome light and it was reading that as well.

 

[AeroCoupe]

You can rig up some wiring to the dome light and connect them to the battery and check to see if the malign actually works. It’s not uncommon for them to just quit working.

 

[Riley Barth]

But if I’m getting power from the green wire which is the map light, why isn’t it working? Cleaned all the corrosion off the screws as well as the unit. Do you think that crack could be the issue? Is that just a y connector underneath the plastic?

 

[AeroCoupe]

I’m thinking it’s internal to the light itself.

 

[2000xp8]

We are talking about the flexible head map light in the center near the windshield, correct?
When you say bought another unit, new or used?

I fixed my map light by opening it up and adjusting the contacts and then using a soldering iron to re-melt the tabs back on.
The little button is a problem on most foxes, that's why i asked if the new unit was new or used.

 

[Mustang5L5]

These things are prone to corroding internally. You need to split them apart by melting the plastic tabs so it will release the little pivot. Sand the contact down inside, then reassemble, remelt the plastic tabs and it should work