Hi there.
New to forums/rangers so I apologize in advance for any novice mistakes or amateur questions.

I have a 1996 ford ranger 2.3. Had the problem at first where once I put in a new bulb in the dome light, it wouldn't turn off. Read some threads and applied Wd-40 to the switches open and closed the doors a few times and after a couple days it finally worked. Dome light was working w the Dim switch and when I opened any of the doors. However not even 5 minutes after I got it to work I put the cover back on and a minute after that it stopped working. Now I have the opposite problem where my light won't come on at all. I'm fairly positive I'm hooking up my light bulb correctly because I got it to work the first time. All sounds still work when I open my doors / leave the head lights on so I don't think it's my switches. Any advice on what to look for? I just don't understand why it was working perfectly and then 2 minutes later not at all.

Appreciate the help and advice..

Thanks!

 

Most likely there is a loose wire or loose ground up behind the light fixture. Just pull the fixture down and check for any loose connection, and connections where bulb terminals are connected to wires.
10 minute job to check. When a wire is loose all it takes sometimes is just a slight movement, like getting in or out of the vehicle, to cause wire to intermittently connect or disconnect.
Grumpaw

 

Thanks for the reply. I unscrewed the fixture and didn't see any loose wires. Perhaps it's the other end of the wire is loose? I saw a video of someone cutting a wire that made it to come back on but the guy in the video didn't know what wire he was cutting other than the color of it.

 

Have you checked the fuse for the dome light

You can download the 1996 owners manual here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...1-models-3747/

It should have a fuse "map", so you can find the Dome light fuse

 

Thanks RonD! I'll try that.

 

RON! THANK YOU SO MUCH! That was it. Read through the manual a little bit. Checked the fuse box and saw that the fuse for the dome light (10 amp space 27 in the fuse box) was shorted!!

Bought a $3.99 pack at autozone, popped it in and now its working.

Cannot thank yall enough. Now on to the next of a few things i need to fix.

 

Good work

Thank for posting the FIX