Replace door switch mayhem

[howzzzit]

My 72 C10 has a bad door switch on the driver's side. Removed the switch and the wire is missing. How do I retrieve the wire? Take kick panel off? Tried fishing for it and no luck. Pretty small hole to fish through.

[dmjlambert]

Well the wire goes into the kick panel just a couple inches away from the door jamb switch, so you can probaby pull the wire out, shape it the way you want, and then push it back into the hole in the kick panel while aiming for the jamb switch hole. That's what I did. If you need to use a piece of stiff wire such as coat hanger, you could fish that through first and tape the wire to it.

[howzzzit]

Thanks for the photo. Took off the fresh air vent lever and the front top corner of the kick panel carpet. Pulled out the white wire and then tried to fish it through 200 times. No luck. Took a long wire tie and cut off the big end and taped the wire to the zip tie. Thought it would be another 200 tries, but it landed on the edge of the switch hole on the second try. Prayed for no Kalif earthquakes and grabbed it with needle nose. Wire tie is flexible and bendable. I think much better than trying a wire.

Thanks

[RustyPile]

I recently installed courtesy lights in my truck where there previously where none. Drilled the holes, ran the wires, and installed the lights.. I drilled the holes as previously noted in dmjlambert's picture. The only thing different I did there is, I drilled the hole big enough for a small grommet to protect the wire.

As for fishing the wire through the jamb switch hole -- I used a 1/16" music wire with a small "fishhook barb" bend on the end.. I pushed the switch wire in place and after a few attempts, I was able to position the wire near the jamb switch hole.. I shoved the music wire through the jamb switch hole and hooked the switch wire, pulled it through the hole and installed the terminal on the end.. Plugged it to the jamb switch and screwed the switch into place.. Job finished..

[howzzzit]

In hindsight since I have carpeted kick panels I could have extended the wire and drilled a new hole lower down just opposite of the door jam hole. Would have been better fishing.