VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1929 two door coach courtesy light wiring

Can someone advise me on how the wiring is run for the ceiling courtesy light. My ceiling light and door post switch are there, but all the wiring is gone. At present there is no upholstery in the car, hope to start rewiring soon (with newly purchased harness).
As always,thanks for every ones's help and support.

B.

You might want to get a wiring diagram for your car. You will find it very handy.

The dome light is wired as follows:
1. A wire is connected to the hot side of the headlight switch.
2. That wire goes to the dome light.
3. Another wire goes from the dome light housing to one side of the dome light switch on the door pillar.
4. The other side of the dome light switch is connected to a metal ground on the body. (On my 1932, the ground wire was soldered to the metal body above the windshield at the factory)

The factory wiring switches the ground not the hot line.

Some folks prefer to wire the switch between the light switch (fused) and dome light. That requires the light fixture to be grounded.

When I put upholstery in customer's cars, I run a full length ground wire to the switch from under the dash, up the side of the passenger side windshield pillar along with the hot wire. Then I go to the switch. I've found it to be more reliable than the original grounds through the body. On the 29'and 30' I run the ground from the chassis up through the floor then to the switch in the pillar. I only do this of course with the OK of the owner as it's not original.

Thanks JD, I do have a wiring schematic. I was looking for the physical route the wires are run.

Thank you.

Thanks Christech, this is what I was looking for.

On my original barn survivor 1932, the factory ran the hot wire from the headlight switch, up the driver's side "A" pillar and across the inside of the roof bows to the dome light.

On the 29' coach the wires come from under the body up through the floor at the lower part of the door latch pillar. The pillar has a routed slot and the wires run up to the switch. From the switch they continue up the roof rail then out to the dome light area tacked to the bow. I have pictures but only of the switch up.

On Bob's 30' 4dr, the wires also were run under the body but came up at rear behind the bottom seat cushion and were fastened to the rear of the window frame, up to the roof rail, forward to the center pillar, down the pillar to the switch, then back up to the roof rail, out on the bow, to the dome light. When I saw this it sounded a little crazy and it's the only car I've seen like that. Bob's car was all original with the original style clips holding the original cloth wiring. I changed the wiring as I thought there was no reason for that routing and instead routed the lower section of the center pillar after removing the brace and ran the wires up from the floor to the switch. The original way used about another 6-8' of wire on both the ground and feed.

On BearsFan 315's 29, his dome light is also wired from underneath the body and up through the floor to the bottom of the rear hinge pillar at the bottom of the curved section. The wiring is tacked at the back edge of the wood in the curved area to keep from getting tacked into with the interior then it goes into a routed slot up the pillar to the switch. Again the wires go out the upper part of the pillar, down the rail sightly, then across a roof bow to the light. Jerry's car was also original.

I've found many different ways the wiring is run in these old cars. The 31' 5passenger I'm working on now has the feed wire coming up the passenger side windshield post, through the slot in the front trim board, then across the roof bows to the dome light. The ground to the switch was fastened under an upper body fastener in the roof rail, down the pillar to the switch, and then back up, over the dome like. I will extend this ground down to the front cowl and to a good ground for better performance.

Ted

First off, I want to thank everyone that has responded to my questions.
Thanks to your help I found on my 2 door there is a routed channel in the cabin facing side of the passenger door post. Nearing the bottom of the post I can see where the routed kerf goes around the corner to the back inside edge and obviously heads toward a hole some place in the floor. There is no obvious hole visible so am I assuming it goes down in the void between the floor and sheet metal? Also what gauge wire was used?

14 or 16 gauge wire will work fine.

OK, I put a light over the void between the back of the door post and the sheet metal, got under the car - no light coming through anywhere. I still don't know where it penetrated the floor.

I went to the ceiling and pulled the cover off of the light fixture, at some point in it's former life a cobb job was done - obvious from the crudely cut hole on the mounting board and two and a half miles of electrical tape. There are two wires going into the socket (rubber insulated) and a third wire(fabric insulated) grounding the housing. This wire was a cut off stub. The other two wires were connected to the original fabric insulated wires which came up from the door post and light switch. The socket has two contacts, with the bulb being a double contact, single filament #TS 1004 bulb. Is this correct or should there be a single contact socket? My way of thinking is that there should be a feed wire and a grounding wire with a single filament socket/bulb.

As mentioned above, there are only two wires for the dome light.....one wire that goes to the light and the other wire that goes to the dome light housing for a ground.

The bulb used is a single contact bulb.

By the way, the correct bulb for your dome light is a #63.

Thank you again.

You bet!