1994 Class A chassis electrical issue

[kklowell]

When I connected the wire direct from the battery back to a bulb and touched any of the brake lights wires to the POS side of the bulb it lights up

Which terminal on the battery did you connect that wire to? You should do as suggested above and run a negative wire back to the ground wires in the back and see if your lights then work as they should.

 

[Rhianntp]

I ran a wire directly from battery neg side to the rear of the coach and secured it so it flops and can be connected to whatever you want

 

[Rhianntp]

Attach a test light to the brown wire and the white wire with the running  lights on it should light up.

Attaching test light to brow n and white wire nothing happens... Attach it to brown and the lead I ran from battery neg and it lights

 

[Rhianntp]

Makes sense if the white wire has 12 volts as well

 

[bullfrog]

Okay you have just proven that the white wires are not connected to the negative post of the battery. Now take your clip you made for your test meter and use it as a jumper wire to connect the white wires to the shinny frame and retest.

 

[Rhianntp]

Soon as I connect the bare metal clip to the white wire the running lights come on

 

[bullfrog]

Are the running lights turned on at the switch?

 

[Rhianntp]

Yes

 

[Rhianntp]

When the bare frame lead is connected to the white wire the running lights come on and test light jumped between the brown wire and that bare metal also lights

 

[bullfrog]

Wonderful Hooray!!! You have just proven the white wires were not connected to the shinny metal frame as they should be. One At least one or more should be some where underneath on the frame. You can either hunt and find them or fish another wire from them and attach it to the shinny metal frame. Once that is done and the sockets and connections done all should be well.

 

[Rhianntp]

Stand by for a picture pls

 

[Rhianntp]

All the running lights work but not the top rear.. which I think are controlled by that green and white wire I have taped upwards...how shall we teast that? I think those were the source of the short

 

[Rhianntp]

Forget the case of beer... I'm buying you new internet 

 

[bullfrog]

You can remove all the light bulbs and use your meter to check for continuity between the green wire going up and the white wire going up. There should be no continuity with the bulbs removed, if there is there is a short which in a fiberglass body almost has to be a socket or bare wire touching a socket.

 

[Rhianntp]

We have narrowed it down to those lights.. I can live without those for now...haha

 

[Rhianntp]

This sound about right ? :

We had two problems ... One the ground was crap... And two the upper rear running lights are shorted

 

[bullfrog]

This will save you climbing a ladder if you have a spare battery or vehicle you can get a fuse holder with a 20 amp fuse and hook it to the green wire going up and use jumper cables to hook the other end of the fuse holder wire to the positive and the white going up to the negative cable. If the fuse blows you have a short, if the lights light without blowing the fuse hook them up. Back feeding problems caused by lost of grounds as you have seen can give you all sorts of odd problems.

 

[bullfrog]

Very possibly. Be sure to fix all the connections properly as the wire nuts are known to cause problems as well.

 

[Rhianntp]

Oh yes.. gonna be raining all day tomorrow . time to get wire brush to them sockets.. then when the rain is gone I'll make the new connections... think butt splices crimped and heat shrunk is ok?

 

[bullfrog]

Just make sure to verify connections and sockets are good before making permanent connections.