Hello! My 67 base model has the courtesy lights in the door panel. I assume these are XR7 panels. Curious if all Cougar wiring harnesses have the provision for the courtesy light? I mean if they all have the opera light harness seems likely?
Also, is there a trick to popping the plastic housing out of the panel? Or is it necessary to remove the panel? My courtesy lights are in reasonably good shape and I don’t want to damage them.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Brian
Door courtesy lamp wiring is standard in all wiring harnesses. Opera lamp wiring is standard on XR-7 only.
Thank you Royce!
I have a 69 so it may be different. But there is a small Allen screw on the bottom side of the bezel so you can remove it and get access to the .mounting screws
The screw should be a phillips head. Removing those two screws will only allow you to change the bulbs. If you want to remove the entire courtesy light assembly from the door panel then you must at least pull the lower half of the panel away from the door. The housing part of the light has two studs on it that have self tapping nuts holding it to the panel. Plus you will need to unplug the wiring to remove the housing. Also on the 67-8 cars there is usually a small flat piece of metal that acts as a support that goes on the stud before the nut goes on. It is about 1/2" wide by about 2" long.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Thanks Randy. That’s exactly what I needed to know. I will try a new bulb first. If that doesn’t work I will dig deeper.
If you change the bulb and it still does not light up the next thing I would look at would be the wiring that is exposed between the door and the door jamb. That wiring will often get damaged and a wire could be broken. It is a flex point and depending upon the climate that the car came from the wiring can get brittle. It is also very common for someone to just cut the entire section of wiring if a door needed to be removed for some reason.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Mea Culpa, I was in my driver’s door today. Yes Phillips screws on the bottom of the bezel, speed nuts on the back. Gotta pop the bottom & back side of the door cards.
I shouldn’t try & respond from memory
Thanks for the detailed reply. Appreciate it.
I installed a bulb on the driver’s side and it works. No go on the passenger side. Going to have to dig a little deeper.
