lol way to live in the sticks, your welcome on the offer btw thats cool your boyfriend has one too, i have the feeling ill be contacting you if i get something i cant figure out lol, if there is something i need to take apart i will just go to the junkyard near me and just pull their blazers apart. I wont take anything, just take it apart. As for that little red light you were talking about it might be for an alarm, my friend has a 91 and there is a red light there i think, look around the hood area and door jams for something like a 2nd push button switch. Maybe they half-assed it and spliced the alarm with the existing push button switch. see if you can see a speaker under the hood, if they had alot of audio stuff in the truck they definitely had an alarm.

 

Good idea.
My Blazer has a switch for each overhead light. They are push on-push off type. Did I give you enough information to get started? If not, ask away. I'll check off and on throughout the day. (Gotta watch some football you know).
Y'all are tough to do this outside in the winter. I'm a Texas boy and it gets too damn cold for me down here in winter. Self admitted wimp. Give me a 100+ day anytime.
I really would start with the cig lighter. Hope you're keeping these posts handy. I hate repeating myself. Good luck.

 

Drifter: I only live in the sticks because I go to Uconn and it happens to be out in the middle of nowhere. But yeah, if you ever need help with something we're more than happy to lend a hand. Also, you were right, there used to be an alarm in the truck.

Gimpy: I think I have enough info to start, and don't worry I've been reading back on your posts to make sure I understand. The switches for my lights have been changed. They flip one way for on and the other way for off. I e-mailed the previous owner to ask about the switches because it's easier than guessing and he said if I ever need anything to call him. Apparently the guy who owned the truck before the previous owner hooked up a light bar to those switches. My bet is that he hooked those wires into the system and messed something up. I was told that none of the interior lights have not worked since the light bar was removed. The switch under the dash used to power fog lights that are long gone, and like I said above, there used to be an alarm.
Update: I planned on spending all of today working on this but somehow misplaced ALL of my screwdrivers and then it started raining! I am so pissed. So instead I took some pictures of my weird wiring so I don't feel like today is a total loss.

This is some random wiring that I have no idea where it goes. Notice it is screwed into the door jamb above the door switch. I think it was wiring for the alarm that's no longer in the truck. There is a black one that isn't connected to anything on the other end, and a white one that goes up into the dash somewhere. Sorry for the lack of quality, I took them on my phone.



This is the switch. It does have power going to it because when I flip the switch it lights up red. One of the wires goes up through the dash and then through a hole in the frame where the plug was removed and it goes into the engine compartment somewhere. I was told that this switch used to power fog lights that are no longer there. Ugh. I have a headache from all of this crap.



This is the little red light for the alarm that doesn't exist.



Here are the switches for the light bar that doesn't exist.


Some more wiring that I can't trace, probably from the light bar.


I seriously hope that I will be able to figure all this stuff out.

 

Looks like a piece of cake to me. You'll fix it. Do you have a pair of diagonal wire cutters (we call them dikes)?

 

i use to spend alot of time at uconn my ex goes there, it is in the middle of nowhere but i like the area its pretty the mansfield dam is pretty cool. Im happy i was right about the alarm, and i wish you still had that light bar, i would buy it off of you, my lights are bolted to the roof rack. I think your best bet for fixing th elighting issue is to follow the wires to where the are spliced into the harness. At least with my lighting i didn't splice anything really, just one wire into the power plug at the bottom of the dash, everything else is run from the battery to the center console where i have 2 N.O.S. toggle switches to run my auxillery lighting. I know i should have a fuse in-line with is but i dont know what type of fuse to use and where excatly to put it.

 

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys. School has started in full swing again and I've been overwhelmingly busy. I don't have any wire cutters but I should be going home for the weekend soon and there I have almost every tool in the world at my disposal. I always end up without the tools for the job when I'm up here. I'm actually more optimistic about this whole thing now that I kind of know where the problem is. Thanks so much for your help Gimpy, I'll definitely update on here when I finally get something done, or if I have any more questions. Maybe I'll see if any of my neighbors have the wire cutters, because I don't think I can wait much longer to dive into this.

Drifter, I do like it up here. It's definitely pretty but it's so far from everything else. Maybe that's not a bad thing.

 

Actually you don't need the dikes to do the troubleshooting. They are to clean out the old not-used wiring when we get done with the real problem. By the way in the overhead console the two round push-on, push-off switches are for the two reading lights just forward of them. Thee other switches are definately add-ons, but they look pretty cool. Next time you're at the auto parts store, pick up some black interior screws to secure your dash back together. Probably #8 x 1" long. I've found a well-stocked ACE Hardware store has a pretty good selection too. You might also get a few #8 clip-nuts (some call them speed nuts) too. Yes, you might have to ask. Let's do this right.

 

Hey Gimpy, unfortunately I still haven't done anything yet. The weather has been frigid the past couple days with the wind chill in the teens or something and it snowed today. I agree that the switches look cool. Do you think I should start with the panel behind the switches to see if the light bar was wired in there? Seeing as the lights haven't worked since the light bar makes me pretty sure that the wiring for that is the source of the problem. I'll definitely pick up some interior screws in the meantime.

 

Gimpy, I did some exploring today and tried to use the multimeter. I followed the directions but it's still so foreign to me. With the meter on 2000 ohms the dome light read at 315 and with it set at 200 it was 1 which the manual says is out of range. The rear box light read at 1 for both 2000 and 200. What does this mean? I was told if it stays at zero or doesn't move then it's good. But mine is digital so I don't know what applies. That's as far as I got with the readings. I have to wait to look at the lighter because there's this one plastic bolt that someone put in and I can't get it out. Also, I pulled the plastic piece off where the switches are and found each switch has 2 wires coming off of them. There are some yellow wires and some red, and each switch has a 15 socket wired in. I don't know if any of it was supposed to be there or not. I can take some pictures tomorrow if that will be helpful.

 

Whenever you're ready.
Actually I think you should start at the fuse box. The thing about troubleshooting is to have a methodical approach and a plan (or an idea) about what you want to accomplish. You should also have an understanding of the system but if you don't we can work around that. I read so many posts where guys throw parts at a problem hoping that'll fix it. I call it "shotgun troubleshooting" and it's a nice way to go broke without fixing anything.
As for the meter, just leave it on 200. If you read 1 that's OK. No continuity. If you read less than that just hold the probes for a little bit and the numbers will probably drop. If they do you have continuity (infinity) and there is a direct connection. You should do this to start with the probes held together as a test to make sure they're functioning properly. Depending on what you're checking this could be either a good or a bad thing. For instance if you're checking a fuse and you get close to zero, the fuse is good. If you're checking a light socket with the bulb removed and you put your red probe in the center where the power comes from and your black probe on ground you don't want it to change. If it does this means you have a short (direct power to ground) which equals blown fuse. Got it? It ain't that hard. I have a factory wiring diagram and will see what you need to check.
As for the switches (the upper ones I presume) there was probably power coming in and when you throw the switch power then flows to whatever you're turning on. What do you mean "a 15 socket wired in"?