Hey all,

Does anyone else have the cool under-hood light with the detachable light on the racheting cord?

If so....how do you make it go? I know it's a silly question, but I'm stumped. The bulb is good and the wiring looks correct, but I cannot see any manual or hood-activated switch to make it turn on.

Any help appriciated!

Thanks guys...

 

Yep, I have one. And mine doesn't work either. Make sure you have voltage on the wire going up to it. If you do, I would guess there is probably a mercury switch in the housing that makes it go on and off. I have never fooled with mine.

 

Thanks Franklin2,

As soon as the temp gets back above freezing, I'll go out and have a look at it.

 

Dan,

Franklin2 is correct, there is an internal Merc. switch in the light itself... if it does not work make sure that you have sufficent ground and also that you have supplied power to the light. I have 2 trucks with them and the merc switch is bad in both. I have tried to get one from a Junkyard but out of the 25+ that I have found they all either have bad merc switches or are so badly coroded that they will not work.

 

I never seen one of those, that is cool. you could probably get a mecury switch and some heat shrink tubing from radio shack and replace the socket.

 

Thanks guys,

I'll check the ground/power first, then crack into the light to see if the switch is bad.

If I'm not mistaken, mercury switches are being phased out due to their toxic conents and other styles of switches are being used instead. I'll verify that there is some replacement part or other and get back to this thread.

As this sounds like a common problem, maybe this is an opportunity for a good tech article on restoring operation to these lights.

 

Would you be able to adapt the mercury switch from a newer truck? I haven't seen the older style so I don't know if that would work or not.

 

there is this catalog that i know most of u guys have that it is not allowed to say but they sell a universal one for the hoods which im sure one can be riged up by using parts from the shack.


thanks

 

My dad added one of those cheap aftermarket trunk lights to a car he gave me, which lasted about month till I broke it. It had a mercury switch in it you could rob. I don't know how much it cost though.

 

Happy new year (East-Coasters!)!

Thanks for the offer....

I've been looking into the ball-bearing replacement switch deal already, and will call the FORD dealer on Friday and see how much they are. Many of the FORD dealers are *giving* these away as a part of a replacement program sponsored by the EPA to rid the world of mercury switches (I'm cool with that...free!)

When I get the skinny on the replacement deal I'll post a reply to this thread and let people know what's up and how to replace the switch (assuming that's what's bad with the lights).

Personally I'm not thinking the switch is bad on mine...probably a grounding issue like UglyTruck suggests....but still.

As to the Mercury switch issue...there's enough mercury in one of those switches to kill a small lake's worth of fish. I'm not trying to be a tree-hugger here, but it does make sense. Better to be rid of them entirely in my opinion.

I'll publish my results to this forum shortly (once the snow/ice is done I'll get to working on the light) including switch replacement info from FORD. Apparently there's quite a few of us with broken hood-lights, and I'm only too happy to help fix 'em.

Cheers!

 

Did you happen to check and see if there's an over ride switch on the unit itself? I have one that automatically turns on when you open the hood, but it has a switch so you can tun it off if you want. I'm not sure if it's stock or aftermarket though.


Justin

 

Yep...checked that. No override switch at all.

I'm thinking that it would probably be a good idea to install one...or better yet just put a regular switch on it and dump the mercury switch all together.

 

i dont know if this would be a common problem, but mine wasn't working either, and after checking the juice going to it and the merc switch.... of all things i noticed that the grounding wire was completly corroded inside, so after replacing the ground it works great.

 

I've got one. Works great. Didn't even know what it was til someone pointed it out to me. The clip holding it in place is a bit of a pain to unlatch, but I never use it anyway. Still it's cool to show off!