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jimmerheck's avatar
jimmerheck
Explorer
Aug 14, 2018

alternate ceiling light for when wiring is shorted

Hi all, first post here. 1987 Fleetwood Tioga class C 24 footer is current rig. Have had motorhomes for over 20Y. Have a small dilemma. Got to camp spot, no rear ceiling lights. Blown fuse. Through trouble shooting, found the wiring that goes up the wall and over the ceiling to my one ceiling light, one light only, has shorted wiring that is built into the ceiling and wall layers. The other light wiring is good. Its only the one light above the bed that we hardly ever use. Bad wiring wont pull out and looks impossible to get a new power and ground light through the ceiling layers, its all sandwiched together. Has anyone else had this problem? Dont want to do it half ass and run a pair of wires along the ceiling, want them to be hidden. Its in a very noticeable spot. I'm thinking I can either buy a battery powered LED light and mount it up there replacing the original 12v light, or run new wiring under some kind of moulding that would be clean and wouldnt really be noticeable. What does anyone think that has seen this before? Thanks!
Class C

26 Replies

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  • CA_Traveler's avatar
    CA_Traveler
    Explorer III
    Aug 16, 2018
    Like you I don't want any wires showing inside including wiring channels.

    Another option is to run a wire on the roof. No one will see it.
  • enblethen's avatar
    enblethen
    Nomad
    Aug 16, 2018
    Here is a way to fix it. Reverse the two wires. Mark the grounded green wire Black, and the white wire as red for positive. You must reverse at both ends and identify at both ends. Put a small tag on wire as to what you have done.
    The grounded wire now becomes negative and the good wire as positive.
  • ron_dittmer's avatar
    ron_dittmer
    Explorer III
    Aug 16, 2018
    jimmerheck wrote:
    and yes, I cut the wires off of that light circuit and the green power wire is still shorted, its not the light fixture. The green power wire is shorted to ground.
    Just make sure the green wire is not supposed to be your ground wire. In a regular house, the white wire is always ground, but in vehicles white is often a power wire.
  • azrving's avatar
    azrving
    Explorer
    Aug 15, 2018
    That sounds more like what they would do. So you separated the green wires and checked them individually?
  • jimmerheck's avatar
    jimmerheck
    Explorer
    Aug 15, 2018
    I should have said for the 12v hot wires coming off of that rear light circuit, there are 3 green wires coming off the hot post from the converter, that head out and split 3 different directions. One of the green legs goes to the bathroom light and fan, one of the green legs goes to reading lights and a rear compartment light, and the third green wire, the one shorted to ground goes to the light above the bed.
  • jimmerheck's avatar
    jimmerheck
    Explorer
    Aug 15, 2018
    thanks all for your input. I know the short is in an unaccessible place, I have isolated it to the wiring passing through the sandwiched ceiling structure. I have disconnected all of that circuits output wiring from the converter and physically followed it from the converter all the way to the ceiling area. There is an access hole in a cabinet where it passes into the ceiling. The wiring can not be pulled out in either direction, they are stuck in the ceiling, its only a 4' run, but they are stuck and wont budge in either direction. And I've tried to see if I can fish a wire through, but the ceiling sandwiched structure is filled with foam, so no go. So its battery powered led light fixture or run a wire on the ceiling and cover it with a trim piece. Thanks all for your input.

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