My new battery ran down over the last week or so. I boosted the car off and the interior lights stayed on with the door shut and it running. After I turned the motor off and took out the keys, it stayed on with the door closed. I think this is going to be the door jamb switch being bad. Was going to replace both sides and my question is this. Am I going to have to pull the kick panel to replace?

Make sure the courtesy light bulbs still work and you have a good ground from the bracket to the dash frame. This was all that was wrong with mine a couple years ago when I had the same problem.

If it is a jamb switch, should be just enough wire to R&I.

Thanks guys. This is an all of a sudden thing so I believe the switch is bad. Will clean the ground cable connection and the body area where the switch tightens to as well to be on the safe side.

I have been having this same problem. The switches are so simple, I have a hard time believing they can wear out or break. I have cleaned all the connections and checked all grounds and so far so good on mine, but I have not had it out for a drive yet.

P.S. there might not be enough wire to pull the switch out the front. there was not in mine. I ended up pulling too hard and losing the wire behind the kick panel. That sucks big time! Don't tug too hard.

There was 6 inches or more wire in behind the switch, so there was plenty to work with. That said one of the spade tips broke and I have to get another today. With that much wire left, I can only conclude that these are the original 42 year old switches. They had a good run, R.I.P.

Don't discount problems with the sockets grounding out. That was my problem. The sockets were loose in the brackets and allowed some contact with the ground, which lit the bulbs. They would periodically flash from road bumps, or stay on.

The way the lights are wired is there is always power to them but the door switch leads to ground. So if they get grounded another way, they light.

AHAH! No one seemed to belive me! Thanks for the second opinion!

Very true, happened to me in my 67. Nothing wrong with the switches, but rather one of the courtesy lights decided to seek another path for success.

Test

Yeah, it seemed like they were ignoring you helpful advice.

I just replaced the passenger side, and it was defective. There was no insulator around the inside of the spade connector.I guess it wore out and broke. The inside shaft of the switch would intermittently short to the case, and on the lights would go. A new switch fixed it. getting the AC kick panel of was just a small challenge.

Try something simpler.

Decided to clean the lamps and grounds as recommended in an earlier post and lo and behold they still stayed on. Went over the wiring, other grounds and decided that the switches were bad.

This did not work. The solution: Turn off the dash switch that controls the brightness! My wife had last driven the car and left that on when she adjusted the dash brightness during an early morning drive. Battery being new was strong enough to last all day, but not a week.

Isn't it great when it's something simple when you're expecting to have to do a difficult repair?

LMAF!

Here's why.

Saturday after done work'n on kids cars, and 4-5 beers, get riding mower out to check over.
Hosed off from munching last 3 weekends of fall.
Completely covered in brown dust and chopped leaves.
Beer.
Drained old fuel. Put fresh in.
Beer.
Checked oil. Like new w/o gas odor. Changed last fall.
Put battery in.
Beer.
Set choke and fired right up no probs.
After little warm up, checked blade engagement. No probs there.
Press accell pedal. Nothing.
Change gear selector. Nothing.
All the way into reverse. Nothing.
Push mower up to driveway.
Beer.
Get floor jack and blocks of wood out.
Raise up, place safty blocks, and look all over underneath.
Nothing broken or out of place.
Get back up, large swig of beer...and notice the shift lever is on LH side, not RH.
That would be the deck hieght adjuster....

LOL, very funny. I'm sure we all have stories like those.