When a door turns into ajar.

[motogeezer]

Just picked up a low mileage 96 Cargo. Thanks to Brooklynbay's instruction post, I changed out a broken slide door latch. Door will now latch, but needs
a hefty slam. I guess something still needs adjustment.

Along with the defective latch, I had the "Door Ajar" light on. I hoped the latch fix would cure the light too. Nope. I first cleaned the 4 contacts. No work.
I then popped out the pillar contacts, unplugged them, and jumper-ed the two wires. I could hear a relay in the dash actuate, and the "Door Ajar" light would
dim a bit, but wouldn't go off. I (with great difficulty) unplugged the relay under the dash, the relay stopped clicking, but light is still on. So....what else could cause the light to stay on?
Could any of the plunger switches in the front doors be the culprit?. I've pushed them in as far as I could to make sure they made contact. Still got the darn light. Is there any actuator in the rear barn doors?
So my door is still difficult to close, and my door ajar light won't go off. Any
guidance is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! When you jumped the connection, did you jump both connections for the door ajar light or one door ajar light connection, and one power door lock power lead?

 

[motogeezer]

There are two connections in the door, and 2 in the post (4 contacts total).There are additional blanked out holes (rubber plugs) where I assumed power locks would be if so equipped, So, I removed the 2 contacts from the post and jumpered.

I has occurred to me since.... that just finding and unplugging the relay wouldn't necessarily turn the light out. If the relay were defective, and unplugged, I'd need to
complete the circuit in the relay harness the relay would have. i.e. I'd need to jumper
two pins in the relay plug to turn off the light. Make sense?? Thanks

 

[BrooklynBay]

Since you have a cargo van, do you have double rear doors or a hatch?

 

[motogeezer]

I have barn doors. Looks as though there is switch build into the right rear latch.
Do you concur? Guess I need to check the rt rear door. There's no button (plunger switch) that I noticed. So it's in the latch???
Thanks for the diagram. I have to get myself a shop manual. I'll take the inner panel off the rear doors tonight to see what's in there. Thanks again.

 

[BrooklynBay]

It's probably on the latch. Take some pictures when you open the panel, and post them.

 

[motogeezer]

Well I think I may have found the problem. This one really had me stumped. I checked
all the wiring and switches found in the right rear barn door. Tried to jumper the two
switches to take them out of the picture. No go. "Door Ajar" still on. Thanks to BrooklynBay's diagram, I knew what wire I was looking for, and that the interior lights were all part of the mix. The interior light over the rear doors has a switch on it, and it worked normally. I then noticed that the dome light in front wouldn't come on. Removed the cover and found no bulb. Volt meter showed there was power on the socket as soon as the ignition came on....with all doors closed. Still wasn't quite sure what was up, but figured it was related. Traced bk/y wire along left side of van and found it ran to a relay, positioned just over the spare tire/jack area (left rear corner in cargo van).
Noticed that the relay was quite warm. Separated plug from relay, and the "Door Ajar" goes out. Found the pins to be corroded. Tested all other doors, and when they are open, the Ajar light comes on as it should...close them and the light goes out. I think a defective relay is the issue. The only function I can find for the relay is to tie in the back doors to the interior light system. So.. with relay removed, everything is as it should be, except the back doors don't activate the interior lights. I found the missing front dome lamp in the glove box. Popped it back in and chazam, works like it should. A quick check for major issues found none, but I was running out of daylight. Will check further tomorrow. Guess I know why the lamp was removed from the front dome light.
I'll likely pick up a new relay soon. I'll update this after a more extensive check on things. Thanks for the help.