Every car that I have ever had I either had, or I installed a glove box light. Some were easier to do than others. This was the toughest one to figure out. Easy to do though once you get the parts.
First I had to find a place for a switch. The front of the box is out. Nearly the entire surround where you would normally install a switch has metal reinforcing behind it and I wasn't too keen on cutting into it. On one of the top corners there is no metal but the face is curved so a switch wouldn't sit right. What to do?
I thought that a micro switch off the back of the glove box was the way to go. Went searching for micro switches and I came across these on eBay. Small and cheap, what's not to like? A local electronics shop wanted $9.99 for a single switch so $5.50 with free shipping for 10 of them was a heck of a deal.
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320565577829&refid=storeThe switch was mounted to a piece of aluminum flat stock that I had in the basement. I bent a safety edge on 2 of the edges in a vice to give it more rigidity. I don't know that it was necessary though as the micro switch take very little effort to activate by pushing the arm.
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I mounted the switch behind the glove box on one of the bolts that supports the back of the air bag. In my installation, the ground for the LED is what I have switched. You will see in the following picture where the ground was attached. The bolt that I used to mount the switch was tight and was locked in place with red Loctite so its a tough one to get out. The switch has 2 sets of contacts, one normally open (NO) and one normally closed (NC). As I wanted the current to flow and the LEDs to light when the glove box was open, I used the NC contacts. Had I used the NO contacts then the lights would have been on when the door was closed and off when it was open and backwards from what was needed.
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The LED module is the same one that I used when I did the footwell lighting. They are small and bright and are easy to mount.
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http://www.oznium.com/led-modulesThe LED module was mounted to a 3/16" piece of plastic that I glued with an instant Loctite adhesive (Crazy Glue) to the front edge of the plastic across the top of the glove box just above the wire that the glove box latches into. It appears in the picture that the LED module is to the left of where it should be, but the latch for the glove box is to the right of centre on the door.
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The hot wire was taken from the fuse that I installed for the footwell lighting. That circuit is powered all the time and with a separate ground for the glove box light it won't fade like the footwell lights do.
The final result works well. The light turns on when the glove box is opened and it is well lit. The first photo is with the footwell and maplights on.
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With all other lights off.
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Next I have to get some lights in that storage area between the seats.
