Drivers Door Dome Switch Wire Lost In Hole

[mike gilbert]

I was removing the switch to clean the contacts and the wire slipped out of its crimp and fell in the area behind the door jam. I been fishing for it with a coat hanger with no luck and I cant see and access. Any help would be very much appreciated. Really would like to get it sorted because this switch also activates the factory alarm that I still use. Thanks

[Classic]

Look under the dash, high into the wheel arch, and you should see where it enters the door post.

Pull it out a little and see if you can feed the wire so that you can feed it upwards towards the hole.

Other than that keep fishing.

[douglas bray]

Boroscope with a hook. Been there. Got mine at Pep Boys.

I even used mine to suck sugar water out of an engine. Taped a small rubber tube to it and fed it down through the spark plug holes. Magic. Almost caused my insurance to total the poor thing. Did all the work myself. Still looking for the little prick that put his sugar/antifreeze concoction in the tank of my E350.

[targa80]

I agree with Classic the wire can be retrieved via the opening in the foot well. When I was reinstalled the harness I ran a thin snake wire (or coat hanger) into the switch hole and fed it upwards until I could grab the snake end from the foot well opening. Used electrical tape to secure the wire to the snake and pulled it back thru the switch opening. I used this method on both sides and it saved time instead of trying to feed the wire back down to the hole and grab it from there.

[A horse with no name]

Hi, for what it is worth, I have for decades used the wire that steel workers use for tying 're-bar' together for many different uses. It does work well for pulling electrical wire through.

Cheers!

[Jdub]

A magnetic extension may help here. I almost always use a small binder clip to hold wires away from situations like this.