Clearance lights not working

Jeepboy71 wrote:
Hi all,
I have a 1986 Cascade TC. Trying to figure out the wiring on this guy. Pretty sure I have everything figured out except the lack if clearance lights working. I have zero power to any of them. Camper only has a flat 4 plug on it. I've founded and run power to each lug. The brown wire, which is clearance lights on my truck, is 12v power in the camper. No luck on any of the other lugs. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

What do you mean by no luck on any of the other lugs? Are you saying the other lugs seem to go nowhere when you apply power? Or do the other lugs light the appropriate lights?

When you were running power to the lugs did you also run a separate ground wire to the plug at the same time?

How are you confirming that the brown wire is trying to charge the battery? Is this being verified by a hum from a charger, an LED illuminating, a multimeter reading?

Maybe the previous owner wired the ground terminal of the plug to be used for clearance lights. This is a difficult test to perform because you really don't want to accidentally send 12v volts up the ground wire. But if you have a multimeter you can try running continuity checks between the positive side of the clearance lights and the ground pin on the connector. Alternatively try using a 3 or 5 amp fuse on your substitute power wire to the alleged ground pin. If the pin is wired to the clearance lights they will at come on or at least flash. But if the pin is truly a ground pin as it should be, then the 3 or 5 amp fuse should blow before causing any damage.

If the brown wire is truly charging the battery I would probably start near the battery looking for where the previous owner cut and spliced.

Look inside one of the lights to see if there is a wire for the bround.
Splices for wiring could be in cabinet or compartment on outside.

Yes, everything is covered. Can't get a visual on any of the wiring.

Have you looked inthe inside of the camper around where the wires enter for splices?
That vintae with metal siding used the skin as the ground path.

Thanks Mitch! Definitely need to figure out where that is.

Check your ground wire on the camper.. I have always found with 12v lights not working, it's usually the ground..

Good luck!

Mitch

Thanks for the tip! I've been looking and have not been able to find any of the light wiring inside the camper. I hate to start cutting holes to access.

I have a line tracker/signal tracer that is really helpful for those kind of things. The one I have is made by Sperry but there are a lot of other brands and models of them.