unit505

I want to put a light under the hood of my wife's 94 and I want it to come on when she opens the hood. Anyone done this? What kind of switch?

sylver91

Huh doesn't have one? I though they did in 94. Anyways the switch is a tilt switch so when you open up the hood, the connectors come into contact turning on the light. If you find one at a scrap yard you can hook it up to the fuse panel with a small fuse or to the battery.

unit505

Neither my '94 or my '95 has the under hood light. They're both xl's too.

sylver91

My 96 Xl has one, Bulb is burnt though

f150cam

my 1996 xlt has one, but my 97 f250 HD dont because the PO removed it. so im interested in the same thing, i need a light under the hood.

sylver91

On this it just shows the light hooked up to a 15 amp fuse which is fuse 8 for dash illumination and courtesy lamps

unit505

I'm thinking two of the large license plate lamps mounted under the hood, one on each side with a single hot wire and a switch to flip it on and off. Probably work well and easy to wire up and cheap!

Cowboywrench

I have on my desk 2 switches from old home thermostats. I'm thinking about using them to wire up a light in the lid of my tool box, 1 on each side. I haven't decided where to draw power from for them, or what the switches will do with 12v of power. They look like they'll hold up, but I'll have to mount them in position and isolate them since they are glass bodied. Also, as for lights, I haven't decided if I should use truck marker lights with clear lenses, LED light strips, or license plate lights.
I haven't gotten this idea to a working stage yet, but maybe it will help you out. Oh yea, I saw a heat and air guy at a gas station, told him about my thought, and he gave me the old thermostats to get the switches out of. I believe he called them mercury switches.

unit505

Finally got this project completed and I LIKE IT!

I used some old triple LED lights that I had on my four wheeler. Wired them up to a cheap switch for now and they work great! All of the wiring from the lights runs through the hood and out by the driver's side hinge.

sylver91

Well thats one way to do it I like it.