12V lighting problem

[Kit_Carson]

Was replacing light bulbs in MH to LED bulbs....all bulbs worked perfectly until I got to the wall lamp in bedrooms. The old bulbs were working. I replaced one of the two bulbs, the LED did no work but the old bulb did. I turned the LED 180 degrees still did not work. I put old bulb back in and it blew a 15A fuse. I replaced the fuse, turned the wall lamp on...blew the fuse again. Took the fixture off the wall looking for naked wire or anything that would cause that.....nothing found. The socket for the bulbs looks a little burnt but not too bad. Any suggestions for a fix? This fixture is on DW's side of bed. HELP!!!

[tenbear]

Good news! Glad to hear the problem is solved. Thanks for letting us know.

[Kit_Carson]

Problem solved!!! Wrong bulbs installed either at manufacturer of light fixture or Winnebago. I took 1141 bulbs out and replaced with matching number LED. Blew fuse and did not work. Should have been bulb 1076. Put correct bulbs in and reinstalled the fixture and it works. The light fixture on other side of bed had the correct bulbs installed. DW's side of bed is lit up again, life is good. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[tenbear]

Kit Carson wrote:
Thanks everyone for your quick replies. Tenbear, I do have a multimeter, but not real knowledgeable how to work a lot of it. How would I go about checking for short circuit with it?

Your multimeter should have one or several ranges for measuring resistance, or ohms. The symbol for ohms looks like a horseshoe with the opening down. It may have several ranges in the ohms section, select the lowest range. The highest may be something like 2000k, the lowest, just plain 200. Put your probes in the connector labeled with an ohms symbol and the common (COM) connector. When you touch the probes together the meter should read 0.0 or a very small number. That indicates a very small resistance, or short circuit.

Now, with the power off, put the probes on the connectors that you want to check if there is a short between. For example, the contacts for the problem light socket with no light, the switch off and/or the fuse removed. If the ohmmeter reads 0.0 or a very small number, there is a short, either in the socket or the wiring to it. If no short, maybe the bulb has a short. If checking the LED for a short, remember the LED is polarity sensitive, so reverse the leads and see if it still indicates a short.

I hope this makes sense. Let me know how it goes.

[Ivylog]

First, LEDs are polarity sensitive so once you solve the broken base problem you need to reverse the two wires going to the fixture.

[Kit_Carson]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. Tenbear, I do have a multimeter, but not real knowledgeable how to work a lot of it. How would I go about checking for short circuit with it?

[tenbear]

If you have a multimeter use the ohmmeter function to locate the short circuit. Be sure to turn the 12v power off before doing your troubleshooting as the 12v could damage the ohmmeter.

[Bordercollie]

It might be easiest to get a replacement socket and install it. Cut 12 volt power at battery while replacing.

[navegator]

The plastic circle that centers the positive terminal has either melted or broken apart, if you are good at soldering go to a parts store and purchase the center contact, open the fixture and replace the contact, when you removed the bulb and reinstalled it the little plastic went adios.

navegator

[enblethen]

Check the base pins in the fixture.
Look to see if they are single or double pin configuration.
Push out the pin retainer and make sure the spring behind it is not making contact with both pins.

[You_can_t_take_]

Switch sides with the DW.... :B