Where is the trunk button ?

[CopperNick]

Yup. If the two wires are not immediately visible, look for them in a poly-vinyl sleeve down at the back of the trunk near the driver's side trunk hinge. There is a clip there that anchors both wires because they run in between the outer trunk skin and the inner shell and only appear immediately beside the item, light or popper, that they service. Sometimes they tended to get snipped if the light burnt out or the popper quit actuating the lock.



Nick

 

[Kamloops cutlass]

79 USA 1 is correct. Orange wire should be for the trunk light. If the car was optioned with the remote trunk release solenoid it would have a black wire running alongside the orange wire drivers side of vehicle. If you choose to add this option it’s possible and easier when the interior work is done.

There are other threads describing this in the forum. Good luck.

Edit: when the interior is removed… not done

Yes turned out to be for a trunk light, which is actually pretty cool cause I didn’t know I had a trunk
Light lol
Thanks guys

 

[69hurstolds]

Word about the trunk light. If it's still plugged in to the factory wiring, it's always hot like the trunk popper would be. So any time your trunklid is open, the lamp is on. Obvious at night, but during the day? Not very obvious. During car shows, etc., where the trunk lid will be open a long time, I pull the bulb out and hide it in the trunk somewhere until after the show. May not drain the battery down for just a few hours or half a day, but why risk it?

 

[565bbchevy]

I pull the bulb out and hide it in the trunk somewhere until after the show. May not drain the battery down for just a few hours or half a day, but why risk it?

You could just wire in a switch to turn it on/off from inside the trunk, I have my dual hood lights wired to a toggle on my inner fender in my Monte because the mercury switches would turn the lights on under acceleration.

 

[MrSony]

n. If you don't have the release button (quarter side yellow plastic) visible when you open the glove box, check if there's a small lamp nestled.in the trunk lid. You might not have noticed it if it was burned out.....

I literally went 6 years without noticing that I had a trunk light until I just looked up one day when the trunk was open.

 

[Tucker H.]

You could just wire in a switch to turn it on/off from inside the trunk, I have my dual hood lights wired to a toggle on my inner fender in my Monte because the mercury switches would turn the lights on under acceleration.

My buick wildcat has a mercury switch for the trunk light, it works perfect, but it always turns the light on during hard braking.

Side question do you have any idea were to order new mercury switches?

 

[CopperNick]

Ordering new switches might not prove to be possible due to mercury now being on the list of poisonous chemicals. Even though the actual amount of mercury placed in the switch is only just enough to cover both the contacts at the necessary moment, the stuff itself is so toxic that any rupture that occurs to its enclosure is essentially a Haz-Mat moment complete with eye and lung protection and full bunny suit with the cute blue booties. Had a Chem teacher in HS who loved to show off the properties of Mercury by putting it in a flask and heating it. Enough heat and the liquid would turn to powder; heat the powder and back to liquid it would go.

FYI and a useless factoid somewhat, one of the emperors of China was reputed to have been buried on an island surrounded by a lake of Mercury! Back story is that he was looking for a way to keep his grave from being robbed/vandalized and elected to use mercury for that purpose. No count on how many of the workers/slaves died in the construction process. Bejing knows to the millimetre the exact location of that tomb and No One is allowed to go anywhere near it for any reason. They can't even cut the grass on the hill that sits on top of it. Totally terrified at the thought of what might happen if the tomb is breached and the mercury escapes into the environment.

 

[Kamloops cutlass]

Ordering new switches might not prove to be possible due to mercury now being on the list of poisonous chemicals. Even though the actual amount of mercury placed in the switch is only just enough to cover both the contacts at the necessary moment, the stuff itself is so toxic that any rupture that occurs to its enclosure is essentially a Haz-Mat moment complete with eye and lung protection and full bunny suit with the cute blue booties. Had a Chem teacher in HS who loved to show off the properties of Mercury by putting it in a flask and heating it. Enough heat and the liquid would turn to powder; heat the powder and back to liquid it would go.

FYI and a useless factoid somewhat, one of the emperors of China was reputed to have been buried on an island surrounded by a lake of Mercury! Back story is that he was looking for a way to keep his grave from being robbed/vandalized and elected to use mercury for that purpose. No count on how many of the workers/slaves died in the construction process. Bejing knows to the millimetre the exact location of that tomb and No One is allowed to go anywhere near it for any reason. They can't even cut the grass on the hill that sits on top of it. Totally terrified at the thought of what might happen if the tomb is breached and the mercury escapes into the environment.

The stuff is pretty toxic
When I was a kid I dropped a pewter ring into it, to turn it silver then wore it lol 😟
The silver didn’t last long and the pewter was pretty crappy looking after
You can still find it occasionally in rivers when you pan for gold in bc , mercury was used in the gold isolation process and I guess sometimes it just got away

 

[CopperNick]

Yup. Some of those decommissioned gold fields are still pretty toxic due to all the chemicals that were used for processing way back when. I avoid watching those gold mining reality shows because, even though the work and misery are likely to be real, the processing still seems too easy somehow for what they are finding and harvesting.

 

[Tucker H.]

Ordering new switches might not prove to be possible due to mercury now being on the list of poisonous chemicals. Even though the actual amount of mercury placed in the switch is only just enough to cover both the contacts at the necessary moment, the stuff itself is so toxic that any rupture that occurs to its enclosure is essentially a Haz-Mat moment complete with eye and lung protection and full bunny suit with the cute blue booties. Had a Chem teacher in HS who loved to show off the properties of Mercury by putting it in a flask and heating it. Enough heat and the liquid would turn to powder; heat the powder and back to liquid it would go.

FYI and a useless factoid somewhat, one of the emperors of China was reputed to have been buried on an island surrounded by a lake of Mercury! Back story is that he was looking for a way to keep his grave from being robbed/vandalized and elected to use mercury for that purpose. No count on how many of the workers/slaves died in the construction process. Bejing knows to the millimetre the exact location of that tomb and No One is allowed to go anywhere near it for any reason. They can't even cut the grass on the hill that sits on top of it. Totally terrified at the thought of what might happen if the tomb is breached and the mercury escapes into the environment.

If my memory is correct that was the first emperor of China tomb. Heck check out the history on Xin Zhui she still had red liquid blood in her veins after 2000 years buried in a clay lined grave like half the size of a football field submerged in an unknown liquid that kept her corpse fresh.