i recently bought a nice clean 2004 xlt ranger 4.0, i love the truck but the darn dome light will not work. i go to work at 2am every morning so its kind of a pain if i drop my keys or something. so heres what i got/done
i DO get voltage to the dome light socket but its Very low amps, soon as the bulb is in the socket it basically drops it back to 0. after 10min or so the voltage "without the bulb" goes to 0, i assume this is the battery saver feature ive read about. the bulb is good, ive even changed it just for ****s and giggles. if i flip the dimmer switch all the way up the dome light still does not light but again without a bulb i get voltage but not enough amps to light. everything else seems to work as it should, dash lights, horn etc. i have not started ripping panels off or anything to trace the wires just yet, i thought a post here might yield some ideas.

 

On my 03 when I tightened the mounting screws too tight the light wouldn't work, all I had to do was back them out maybe a quarter turn. I would just try backing the screws out 1/4 turn or so before tearing everything apart.

 

tried this earlier just for giggles and no dice, i also double checked that the connection to ground 'through the screw' does make contact. im thinking i have a bad connection somewhere and should probably start by tracing the wires looking for a open connection. which pillar does the dome light wire follow down into the dash?