Can you post a picture of the lock mech + wiring?

I know that my lock mech is grounded through one of my 2 wires when open and then it will also make contact with the latch/striker on the body when closed.

I would however imagine that it should be grounded just like mine.

 

These aren't actual photos of mine, but photos I found off the web that match my configuration.

This is the mechanism installed in the door. There are three wires going into the plug on the switch Tan with black stripe, violet with yellow stripe and black. Not really reflective in this photo, but tan/blk is center wire,

This is the photo with the switch installed.

Here is a photo of the switch with it removed. Ignore the differences, as this photos was just a comparison of a worn down detent. Mine looks closer to the one on the right though.


Like I stated earlier, if I remove the switch from the latching mechanism and operate the detent manually, everything works exactly as it is supposed to. However, if it is attached to the latching mechanism, the interior lights will not go out, no matter what position the rear dome light is clicked in. Also, if I leave the switch out of the latching mechanism, sit in the back of the cargo area and close the hatch, manually operating the detent does nothing and the lights stay on.

 

Still haven't resolved this issue, but wanted to revive this to see if anyone had more ideas on where to go next. I replaced all of the rear harnesses and the rear latch mechanism and switch. I also replaced all of the door switches. My dash light that shows the rear door open no longer comes on, but still have a problem where the dome lights absolutely will not shut off with all doors closed. I am convinced that the issue is not in my rear hatch wiring, as I checked all of it out thorougly by unwrapping it, checking continuity of each wire and re-wrapping everything. The harnesses that I replaced with were not new, but were in excellent shape.

I've checked the wiring that runs from the rear cargo light back up into the passenger side rear wheel well compartment. There are three wires that run to that cargo light... pink, yellow and violet. The pink and yellow wires have 12 volts at the end where it plugs into the lamp. (Hot all the time) Isn't the yellow wire supposed to drop voltage if all of the doors are closed?

My only other thought at this point is that the cargo light assembly switch is bad and failing to close off the circuit like it is supposed to. Unfortunately, none of the salvage yards have had one that I can get to try and test that theory.

If anyone has any other ideas, I am all for them. I thought about trying to trace the yellow wire back up through the passenger side floorboard, but it obviously has power coming from the junction block to where it terminates at the end, so I don't think that is it.

I know some people just leave the bulbs out and go without, but my OCD won't allow me to give up on this.

 

I mustn't have had an email telling me your replied to this as I would have commented.

The only thing I can think of to try is to unplug the hatch harness from the main harness, and do some continuity tests on each wire to every other wire in there with the hatch open, noting the results and then hatch closed. Check Pin 1 against 2, 3, 4, 5 etc Pin 2 against 1, 3, 4, 5 etc. I think I'd love to hear the solution to this nearly as much as you'd like to solve it. I wouldn't give up myself either.

And to be sure, there definitely isn't another door jamb switch that someone has rigged into it somewhere?

 

By any chance, is there a on/off switch on the dome light that is an issue?
Have you checked the headlight / instrument cluster dimmer switch, up but your left knee to make sure the headlight switch isn't keeping your cargo light on?

 

LOL! Dimmer switch is not on and the headlight switch is newly replaced a few months ago. One of the first things I checked. The rear cargo light is supposed to shut on and off by pushing the lens so you can disable the interior lights when the hatch is open. It doesn't shut off at all, open or closed, and even if it was left on, with the hatch closed interior lights should still shut off. It is possible that the switch in the rear cargo light is bad but can't find another one to test that theory, but thinking that even if it is bad, unhooking it should solve the problem and it doesn't.

Only thing I can think of is that there is a short in the harness between the rear hatch and the junction block in the passenger footwell. Just haven't been motivated yet to pull all of the trim and dig through that. I am thinking that the circuit thinks that one of the doors is open all the time and has to be in that circuit since I have ruled everything out in the rear already.

 

I know this is a bit of an older thread, but I solved my issue and wanted to share. It did turn out to be my front driver door switch. Weird part is that it tested fine along with the other doors and the way I discovered the issue is quite amusing.

I had wired my cb radio in to run into an always hot empty fuse slot in my interior fuse panel, and spliced the ground into the ground wire for the floor panel light (which didn't have a bulb in it at the time. Everything worked fine for quite a while with the cb, then at one point my cb would just power on for a brief second intermittently. It was really weird because the power switch would be completely off. I was on a trip at the time and figured it was a bad cb ground and would check it when I got home. Then later during the trip, with the cb on, I would open the driver door and the cb would shut off. Closing the door turned it back on. When I got home, I swapped out the door switch (that tested fine previously) and miraculously everything started working properly again.

Did I mention that I really HATE chasing electrical problems.

Anyway, many of these types of threads leave people hanging and I didn't want to be that guy. I hate throwing parts at things when they test out properly, but in this case would have been a good solution much earlier on.

Thanks to all of those that chimed in offering help.

 

Thanks for letting us know the solution. This is a prime example of one of those problems that you need to just physically find the fault. I wonder if the CB ground wasn't where it was, none of this would have happened. I still can't work out how the drivers switch was linked to the hatch open/closed issue, I know they're on the same circuit but strange.