The 'E' Type Forum

Good morning everyone

A couple of weeks ago I was eventually fortunate enough to purchase a lovely red 4.2 1966 Series 1 roadster. I am methodically working through several items which require attention. As with all these things one job leads to two more which lead to four more etc etc. I am refurbishing the dash, dial bezels, polish switches and realised that the wiring regarding interior illumination in the car is completely up the Creek.
There are two switches...."Interior" and "Map". There are door switches which both operate fine in so much as they make and break the circuit but someone has got at the wiring of this combo. There is a small "Dash light" under the dashboard which illuminates OK.

What was Jaguars original wiring set up?

I assume the Map switch should illuminate the Map light and the Interior switch illuminate the lamp above the parcel shelf however the door switches currently illuminate the Map light and the Map switch does nothing!

Logic tells me the door switches should turn on the Interior light which should also be switchable from the panel.

I would be grateful if anyone could advise how the setup was originally and then I will try to rerun wires accordingly.

If I need a complicated rewire I would like the door switches to operate both lights though that is not essential.

Your help would be gratefully received

Regards

David

Hello and welcome to the Forum. It would be helpful if you included your name and model of E-Type in the footer of your messages. This will save you time with future posts.
As to your lighting issues:-
The door switches and dash map light switch operate the map light only.
The interior light is operated by the dash interior light switch only.

It's worthwhile insulating the map light while you are at it. You'll see that there's a lot of exposed live metalwork on it. This can be especially iffy if you are lowering the centre dash panel with the map light on. Clearance is marginal at best.

Cheers

Hi David...welcom to the forum.......do you have a Jag ervice manual.....it will have wireing diagrams in it.....we also have usefull colour diagrams in tne Knowledge base section.....Steve

Good morning, Steve
Wiring diagrams are my last resort as I have never been good at interpreting them. If I can't work with what is there now I will then consult them.
Regards
David

Hi

Welcome to the Forum and E-Type ownership. As Steve says above, you will find a wealth of technical information in the knowledgebase section of the forum. If you click on the "Technical Information and Documentation" at the bottom of the knowledgebase screen, half-way down the next screen you will find a number of S1 4.2 wiring diagrams (including a very helpful colour version).

Turning to your car, your door switches are working as designed. The "map" light is the small lamp which is under the dashboard and that should switch on when either the doors are opened or the map light switch is turned on.

The interior light (behind the parcel shelf) not only illuminates the interior of the car but also provides some illumination into the boot when you switch it on. That only operates from the Interior Light switch. The reason (I believe) that it was not designed to operate when the doors are open is, if you have the hood down, the folds of the fabric cover it over and would get hot given the wattage of the light.

From your description, it sounds like the map light switch is not working. This could simply be corrosion/oxidation on the contacts inside the switch. One way of proving this is to disconnect the interior light switch and to swap it over with the map light switch. If the interior light stops working and the map light does work then you've found your culprit.

Finally, as you're working in this area of the car, this could be an ideal opportunity to replace your instrument lighting, map light and interior light bulbs with LEDs. I did this last Autumn and was very pleased with the result. see viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11236&p=136667&hilit=LED#p136667

Depending on your car's production date in 1966, it would have either have had blue or green instrument lighting. The cutover chassis numbers are set out in the following extract from the relevant Jaguar Spares Bulletin:

If yoy want to work on your own electrics yoy need a diagram.......it may look complicated but just break it down into sections...thats why i refered you to the knowledge base there are good ccoloured coded diagrams

And this has the wiring broken down into sections to make them easier to follow:
https://coventryautocomponents.co.uk/st ... uct_id=320

Geoff

Thank you to every one who replied I can sort this out now I know what to aim for.

I will be posting another "Help please" shortly regarding the top of the B post which is a right dog's breakfast but will get photos to explain.