Intermittant engine compartment hood lamp

I had a problem with my engine compartment lamp that is attached to my hood. It was supposed to come on when the hood was raised. But it would only flicker on when I tapped it.

It turns out that it was bent down too far. So I just bent it up a bit and now the motion switch (mercury switch?) activates the lamp correctly.

This just goes to demonstrate to me once again how important it is to understand the function of the part before just digging in and replacing parts.

I hope this helps someone else besides me!