Dr. G and Marc-
Thank you very much for the responses. I started by regrounding the rear
lights this afternoon, and will start replacing rivets holding the marker
light bases tomorrow night. I will also reground to the skin and frame
somewhere (although I'm reluctant to drill into the frame...). What I
don't understand, though, is why all running lights would not function if
one marker light has a bad ground - seem like the one with a bad ground
simply wouldn't work. Also, why would this make it appear as if the ground
wire (the white one) is not functional?
And another question: there is a small aluminum access panel under the
right front of the trailer, in which the wires from the hitch wiring harness
are attached to wires that spread throughout the trailer (wire nut
attachments). There is small metal unit (1 cm x 1 cm x 2cm) with two posts
that is attached to the aluminum access panel - one post has a blue wire
attached and the other post has blue and red wires. The blue wire seems to
be for charging the battery, and is attached to one that is in the hitch
harness. The red wires are not attached to the red wire in the hitch
harness (and therefore apparently unrelated to the left turn and stop
light). Any idea what this little unit does?
Regards,
Christian
'66 Caravel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Multiple recipients of VACList" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2001 7:36 PM
Subject: [VAC] Re: 7 Pin Wiring Electrical Connector
> On my '68 Caravel almost nothing but brake and turn signal lights worked
> because of bad grounds on the marker lights. After 400 miles of pulling
> two marker lights worked. I rebuilt the marker light grounding last year
> and now they all work.
>
> A circuit tester will light on a much smaller current than the lights
> and prevent the lights getting enough current to light. To make that
> test valid you need a much larger lamp for the circuit tester or to make
> the test (battery negative to frame) without a limiter. When using a
> battery as a test source, it would be prudent to install a 10 or 15 amp
> fuse next to the battery. So if you contact a short you will blow the
> fuse instead of putting hundreds of amps into the wires which could burn
> them open or at least burn the insulation off (including the insulation
> on the wires in your hand).
>
> In my Caravel, there's a junction box accessible from underneath in the
> right front corner, that's for the signal and battery circuits. It would
> seem likely that the ground wire should be connected there. Some trailer
> wiring schemes have depended on the hitch ball for the ground return.
> They are easily detected by the flickering marker lights. If the white
> wire isn't visible grounded near there, I'd run a wire to the frame and
> the shell right there to make that a sure connection. Then go on in the
> circuit tracing.
>
> It is entirely possible that every light socket on the trailer system of
> trailer (e.g. marker and signal lamps) has a bad ground. My Caravel was
> in that shape.
>
> Gerald J.
>
>
>
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