What the heck are these switches?

[mdburke]

under the hood of my 74 spider, there are two switches, one on the back wall next to the coolant overflow tank, and the other on the driver side next to the alternator relay. what are they, and can I get rid of them.

[AndyS]

are you talking about the door jam type switches that turn on the engine compartment light when the hood is open and parking lights are on? photo would help

[mdburke]

Thank you for your rapid response, I suspect they are the engine compartment light switches, but why would there be 2, and there is nothing on the hood that would compress them. I can take photos later, but I think you are correct, they are the only compression switches under the hood. There are no lights for them to switch, is there any down side to removing them?

[So Cal Mark]

why not leave them instead of altering the wiring?

[mdburke]

a previous owner hacked the harness very badly, so I am trying to simplify it by removing all non essential components. so I can rewire what I need. But I don't want to put in a whole new harness. after looking at some photos of the light switches, I do not think these are that. I'll take photos when I get home.

[AndyS]

old alarms had some funny looking switches as well.

[mdburke]

this is not my photo, but it shows the switch I am referring to next to the brake fluid reservoir.

[AndyS]

need to post the images online in order to post them. can't just attach them from your hard drive.

[bradartigue]

You would have a fast idle solenoid manual override switch near the reservoir, and a hood light switch. Or maybe there was no hood switch and the light came on when the parking lamps were on and the headlamps off? I can't remember and can't view your pics.

Per the comment above though, I wouldn't remove an original, wired component. God knows FIAT did some interesting things with the wiring, you start disconnecting the stock stuff and the things down the line may stop working.