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Post by Rusty Wings on May 24, 2010 11:45:35 GMT -5
Got my new tail lights installed last week and all lights were working perfectly. Then i took off the marker lights, cleaned them, painted them, put new gaskets in then and re-installed. Went to test them and nothing. None of the marker lights work, at all. On top of that, the tail lights no longer work as running lights. They only work as blinkers and break lights. I've only got till Friday to figure this out, that's when we're leaving for a camping trip to Lake Placid, NY (the Shasta's maiden voyage, for us anyway). From what i've read, the ground is the likely problem. But the only grounds i know are the ones that are hooked to each tail light. I opened those up again and they seem to be connected just fine. Can anyone offer any troubleshooting advice? I know next to nothing about electrical tools and terminology. If you could keep that in mind when providing tips instructions i'd sure appreciate it. Thanks! -Rusty
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Post by rkymtnman on May 24, 2010 11:55:57 GMT -5
I'm no expert by any means but it sounds to me like a grounding issue. Were your marker lights 2 wires - in other words - were there 2 wires running TO your marker lights? Some will just have a single hot wire to the lights and they are then grounded to the skin of the camper - others (mine) run 2 wires to the light (one hot, one ground) then come back to a common ground point. 9 times out of ten these issues come back to ground.
Make sure everything is grounded to a "common" ground. On mine - when I rewired it all - I grounded the flat plug on the trailer to the trailer frame up front - then grounded all lights to a common location on the trailer frame at the rear of the trailer. Both grounds are "common" in that they are both grounded to the frame but to a different physical spot on the frame. Before, the lights grounded to the skin then the skin grounded to the frame and the plug grounded on the frame. Tougher to troubleshoot.
Did any of this make sense? Bottom line - make sure everything is grounded to a common ground.
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Post by Rusty Wings on May 24, 2010 12:08:51 GMT -5
It's weird. The curb side marker lights each had a single green wire going to them. The street side marker lights each had two green wires going to them. One the ones that had two wires, I hooked both right to the marker light wire with a wire nut. Just like they were when i took them off (i'm almost positive).
This just made me think of something: " Some will just have a single hot wire to the lights and they are then grounded to the skin of the camper"
Could the issue be that i put butyl putty behind the marker lights, and that's preventing the backer plate from making good contact to the skin for grounding? Seems unlikely. I tightened it down pretty good, and there's three stainless screws going right through the backer plate and into the skin.
In any case, i understand the theory of connecting everything to a common ground, but i'm really confused as to how to go about testing or verifying that my stuff is grounded properly.
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Post by rkymtnman on May 24, 2010 14:59:32 GMT -5
I just read this again and would bet a week's pay it is a ground issue. Your brake and turn signal indicators work because they are grounded to a common ground but the running/marker lights are not. Following the marker light installation - now the running/tail lights do not work so with the only change being the marker lights - I would start there. Chances are - they were grounded to the skin based on your description. Should be easy enough to test your theory of the butyl being the issue with a short piece of wire and some electrical tape to temporarily connect the "case" of the marker light to the skin. If you do this and it works - just make a short piece of wire and ground the single wire markers to the skin behind the light itself and you should be good to go. I hope I am helping and not muddy-ing the waters so to speak...... I would think a guy could test ground "continuity" with a multimeter the same as any other circuit but honestly, I am not sure.
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Post by Rusty Wings on May 28, 2010 13:26:27 GMT -5
Well.... Learned a valuable lesson on this one. I ended up giving up and taking it to my local mechanic. He had it fixed in less than 10 minutes. Turns out it was a fuse in the TRUCK! So the good news is that i didn't' screw anything up when i had it all apart. The bad news is that i spent half a day trying to fix something that should have taken me 5 minutes. It did cross my mind to verify that the issue wasn't with the truck but a friend was borrowing my other trailer so i had no way of test it, plus what are the chances that a fuse goes in my truck at the same time that i had all the lights ripped out. Just my luck! Anyway thanks, Rky, for the help. I wish taken you up on the bet for the week's paycheck.
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Post by rkymtnman on May 31, 2010 10:24:22 GMT -5
I can't tell you how many times I have done exactly that. Chased an electrical gremlin on my enclosed trailer when it ended up being the truck fuse Glad you got it figured out! Let me know if you ever get out Colorado way and lunch is on me - that is about all I have left in my paycheck after the government gets their share!!
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Post by tbkillen on May 31, 2010 18:44:05 GMT -5
I've been having issues with my lights too. I can't get the running lights to work at all and blinkers aren't working correctly. I've tried grounding, changing fixtures, bulbs,.... I'm going to have my truck checked now before I take the trailer and get rewired. Funny thing is when I check the the socket, it lights up. Put the bulb in.... nothing.
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Post by Bow_Tied on Jun 8, 2010 22:50:08 GMT -5
I've been having issues with my lights too. I can't get the running lights to work at all and blinkers aren't working correctly. I've tried grounding, changing fixtures, bulbs,.... I'm going to have my truck checked now before I take the trailer and get rewired. Funny thing is when I check the the socket, it lights up. Put the bulb in.... nothing. If the turn signals flash alternately when only one side should be flashing, there is a ground problem between trailer and truck (my guess anyway)
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