Solved 1997 Explorer GEM location

[allmyEXes]

My wife's '97 interior lights won't come on when she opens the door and you headlights on warning chime won't work either. My '97 beater has the same part and I want to swap them. Mine works and I don't need those features as much as she does. A few minutes ago, I removed the radio and found what I think is the GEM bolted on the left side. Is this it and is it necessary to disconnect the battery?

Thanks guys and gals...

 

[XLTrunner]

That's it! And yes, you should disconnect the power when working with electronics to be on the safe side.

 

[J_C]

You should ideally, always disconnect power, but unless it's airbag or under-hood related, often I don't, especially if I want live power measurements.

I would disconnect for any rewiring job and always under the hood for vehicles that use electric radiator fan(s) and you'll be anywhere near them. In this specific case, it's a litle different in that again I would disconnect depending on the connector design because if the connector does not make the ground contact before the other pins, it can be damaging to certain electronic circuits to have the power and some other line make contact before the ground does. I can't say for certain if it applies to these GEMs, but I don't recall a lot of Ford connectors that make ground first, usually such connectors have a metal shroud around them to do so.

I assume you have ruled out the fault not being just the door latch switch, or wiring to it in the door boot hinge area being broken or shorted out?

 

[Turdle]

Iirc the part numbers need to match. Not sure why

 

[allmyEXes]

Part numbers were identical all the way to the -AA with the huge B on both of them.