Hi all. New member here. Was hoping someone could help me with a problem.

I have a 1995 Ram. Recently, I noticed that my dome light wouldn't come on when I opened the doors or by the switch. Didn't get around to putting in a new bulb until yeserday and found that the bulb was still good. Then I noticed that the 3rd brake light/cargo light was also not working. When I looked closer, I could see where one of the screws that holds the lens on was gone and it had allowed water onto the bulbs and the two center bulbs (brake lights) were shattered. I put new bulbs in and now the brake lights work, but the cargo lights don't work. The wiring looks ok and there doesn't appear to be any corrosion on the plugs. I am wondering if the wiring for the cargo lights also goes to the dome light and both of them are shorted out or if there is a fuse that controls these two things?

I tried to test the wiring ahead of the plug with a continuity tester but the ground wire for the tool won't reach any bare metal to test with. What can I do?
thanks.

 

Swap the fuses with known good ones and see if anything changes. Fuse box is on the drivers side, open the door and you'll see it on the side of the dash.

 

Check the IOD fuse.....

 

Checked the fuses and couldn't find any that were bad. So I found some jumper cables long enough to hook my negative terminal up to my wire tester and stuck it into the plug coming out to the cargo lamp/brake light. It only had power going through the white wire! The other three wires have no power. They are a pink, pink/blue, and black/orange. I have no idea what any of them are and I'm guessing that the white wire is the brake wire since it still lights up the center two bulbs. I don't have a wire diagram but I'm guessing that the other wires are also what they run the dome light with?

So I see several possibilities here:
1. blown fuse someplace that I can't see
2. corroded wire inside the roof from my lens not being tight against the body.
3. headlight switch gone bad (but it still works headlights, running light, and dimmer for the dash lights).
4. bad ground wire.

Any ideas?

 

check the IOD, i think its in the end of the dash fuse box and has the odd clip around it.

 

That fuse looked good. Replaced it with a new one anyway and it didn't help.

 

At the cargo lamp, the pink wire gets power via fuse 17 in the fuse block on the side of the dash. Headlamp switch provides ground path.

 

Sometimes the fuse blades don't make good contact. Figured that out after chasing a no tail lights deal once upon a time.

 

What color is the ground wire? And what is the pink/blue and black/orange wires?

My fuse #17 is good. Headlight switch burned out a couple years ago (common problem I hear with these gen 2 rams) and I had it replaced. It feels a bit mushy but it runs the lights and dimmer fine. Could it still be giving a bad ground?

 

I'm gonna say maybe headlight switch. My 96 is currently making my dome and reading lights flicker whenever I hit a bump. At night it looks like I have a strobe reacting to the music. It will do it when I slap the dash on top of the switch when in park as well.