Under Hood Lighting

[WVZR-1]

Originally Posted by scottfab

Yes, exactly. If that mercury bubble partially sticks in place on the contacts after hard braking...... not good. My preference now, knowing what I do, would be to remove the mercury switches (actually leave them in place and come up with a jumper arrangement) then put a normally closed momentary switch in, most likely over on the passenger side on the valence there such that the hood activates it when open. I'll be putting this on my "to do" list.

Mercury itself is really toxic and has been known to be so for a long time. Recently here on the Columbia river it's been found to exist in the Salmon that run up the river. So much so the the Oregon State health organization is about to recommend a limit to the number of salmon one should eat per/yr or is it per/mo. Not sure. Anyway I digress.

Ford at one time had serious battery issues with which product I don't recall but it had to do with the position of that product on the car carrier. The rear most position on the top activated the mercury switches drained batteries. Well of course they would accept a charge, the product was sold and batteries failed relatively soon after delivery to customer or in instances before ever delivered to customer. It was a substantially large number of failures and it was actually traced back to the loaded position on the carrier.