‘86 driver side jam switch for room light

[Sissyneck1]

Hi Everyone,

 

first time posting on here but long time lurker. I have a 86 king cab 4x4 with a broken (surprise!) switch for the  room light (dome light?) on the drivers side. I can’t really remember if I’ve ever had all the pieces or if the remaining part of the switch was just pushed into the B-Pilar when I bought the truck. 
 

Anyway… I’d like to repair it but I can’t really find a good reference for how to do that, every replacement switch I’ve found seems to be for the passenger side, including the one I bought before I’d actually investigated and realized they’re in fact, different. So I’m wondering does anyone have an intact drivers side switch they could photo and share here? Or better yet a source for an actual replacement? 
 

much appreciated!

[datzenmike]

The driver's side has two wires to it. One for the lamp and one for warning chime for "key in the ignition'. If you can do without this annoying device and if a passenger side switch will fit, use it.

 

Broken???? or just not working? If simply not working, try flicking it on and off by hand a few dozen times. This will clean the contact surfaces. It's just a switch to ground.

[Sissyneck1]

So it doesn’t even look broken necessarily, just like it’s missing the bracket to mount it, there’s three wires that I can see. Here’s a picture for a better idea. I’m mostly wondering if the bracket needs to serve as the ground or if it can be made out of anything (plastic or aluminum) https://www.imgur.com/a/Y8agEhl

[datzenmike]

 

Yes three. Newer vehicles have a separate Black ground, older ones just ground to the body. 

[Thomas Perkins]

Does your light come on when you open the passenger door?

[Thomas Perkins]

I am on my computer where most of my pictures are stored.Back in Feb,2023.I decided to finally mess with my dome light.It has been working with both doors,but if I were to turn it off at the light,then turn it back on.It would not come on unless I would turn the light switch on an off a big boat load off times.So I never would touch the on/off switch cause of this.You can leave the dome light on all night and it won't run your battery down.I done it a million times.Very low voltage.I replaced the bulb many years ago from a auto part store.They did not have the exact same wattage one from what was on the original bulb,so it was not bright.Not long ago,I looked it up on Nissan site and they still sell the bulbs,I got two of them and they are bright.I then looked up that size and no Auto part stores have that size.They are 12V-10W. for5.72 each and shipping.I looked up the door switches and it only showed one type,so I thought it will work for both doors and bought 2 from Ebay.By the way.I did post this back in Feb,2023 and Mike and I did discuss this and someone else suggested to add a wire to the new one for the driver door.I took the passenger switch screws out that side to see what it looked like.Wonder why Nissan never has sold replacement ones for the driver side or no body else sells new ones.So,The driver switch looked good.What I did was got some WD-40 and the sprayed on the spring and moved it back and forth and reinstalled it and that fixed it.So I have 2 brand new passenger side switches.Are your rubber pieces missing or dry rotted that connect to the door.The switch is about 20 bucks on Ebay.Here are some pictures of mine.

[Thomas Perkins]

[Thomas Perkins]

[Thomas Perkins]

Passenger side.

[Thomas Perkins]

Maybe buy one and see if yours will fit the rubber piece that attaches to your door side.

[Thomas Perkins]

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[Sissyneck1]

thanks Thomas, so I took the drivers side switch out and tried to reassemble it with the new passenger side switch replacement I had and it sort of worked with a few tweaks. Still no functioning light. Not sure if I’m grounding it properly or not. I also left the black and red wire off as it didn’t quite fit. I’m going to take it back out tomorrow and mess with it some more and I’ll post some pics to make this make sense. I’m also going to order a new bulb.