Published On Mar 3, 2024
My 1985 Camaro had the wire broken off of the underhood light assembly. This happened when I was repairing the engine and had the hood removed. This light has a mercury tilt switch built into the light bulb socket. I disassemble the socket to see how it is constructed and to find a way to reattach the pigtail wire to the socket. That was successful and the light is now repaired. The design of this light is likely used across many other General Motors cars of this era.
NOTE: The light socket tilt switch contains mercury and the switch itself should not be opened and if discarded should be taken to the appropriate hazardous waste location.
In addition, there was no power to the wiring harness from the car to the socket, so it was necessary to trace the wiring to find the fuse. In the 1985 3rd Gen Camaro, the fuse is a 4 amp SFE glass fuse in an inline fuse holder rather than being fed from the fuse block. I have a manual for a 1991 Camaro that shows the light being fed from an accessory fuse in the fuse block (always hot), so somewhere between 1985 and 1991 the wiring changed.
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