Emergency!! rear bar wiring.

[NQ42GU]

Gday,

I leave to do the creb track tomorrow and I fitted a Powerful rear bar yesterday and am wiring it up now.

I simply cut the plug off the old lights, worked out which was which with a test light and hooked them up.

The problem is this- With the brake lights and the park lights hooked up and the earth onto the chassis the brake lights work when you push the pedal but there are no park lights. Now,,,,when i unhook the brake light wire the park lights work.

I have the indicators working no worries.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. worst case scenario i take a sicky and get an auto sparky to look at it before I leave tomorrow.

Thanks

Andy

[MudRunnerTD]

I think your wiring is wrong mate? Maybe your earth but I am not sure? Are the stop/park globes correct double globes? If your earth is ok then your fault is there.

Alternatively the fault is in your trailer plug? Did you just rewire that too for the new bar?

[threedogs]

Funny hey ,there is only one way to wire a trailer plug, yet you'll never find two the same,lol
wire it the right way DO NOT use scotch locks, solder ,heat shrink, and you'll never need
to touch it again.

[P4trol]

Test it again with a multimeter to double check your wiring. Run a new earth.

Edit: and 2x for threedogs solder comment.

Tipsy-tap

[Yendor]

Are the replacement lights LED or standard bulbs?

I would say the lights are connected up wrong.

Did the lights in the bar come prewired and you only needed to make one connection? or did you have to wire up each light?

What colour wires did you use?. There would of been an earth in the wiring at the original lights, it would be better to use this.

[P4trol]

Clarification : when you test the lights, be double sure you have the earth correct.

The earth is the one that has low resistance to earth. With the rest of the wiring disconnected, put the alligator clip on the body (bare metal parts of car) , and the other terminal on the wire to be tested. Test lights, brake lights, blinkers, reverse etc. The earth is the one that doesn't light up the tester.

One more thought if you now have LED lights, (someone will know more) it may be something to do with a load resister.



Tipsy-tap

[NQ42GU]

Thanks fellas,

The led lights came all mounted in the bar when it arrived. I am using solder, heat shrink etc. I have just been holding the earth wire against the chassis (I filed a small spot of paint off) I will try running a wire straight from the earth terminal of the battery to the rear just to test again and see what happens.

As for load resistors, the indicators flash at a normal speed so I shouldn't need resistors right???

Thanks for the help.

Andy

[threedogs]

You'll need to fit 50 ohm resistors to the idicators to stop the fast flick

[P4trol]

Ah, ok. I'm a bit off with the resisters.



Tipsy-tap

[Yendor]

The resistors are only used for the indicators if they are flashing too fast, you would be better off changing the flasher can to a non-load sensing type then fitting resistors. This is not your problem.

Check your connections, does it play up with both tail lights or just one?

[NQ42GU]

The indicators flash at a normal speed so don't need the resistors i'm pretty sure.

[threedogs]

one or the other, make sure flash is nice and even not just a fast OE version

[NQ42GU]

Well the problem was that some of the wires needed a diode in line so I dropped it in to the Auto leccy down the road who had it sorted in 3 1/2 hours and $336 later!!!!. I was P#$$ed off to say the least when I spent 2 hours the night before the CREB neatening it up and putting conduit on everything. My grandma could have done a neater job!!!!!! I don't mind paying a little bit more if the job is done really well ($336.00 is still way too much i reckon) but when the quality of work is shite it really annoys me. Anyway, the CREB track was pretty good and the rig performed well. Needs a tune to give it some more low down but overall not too bad.

Thanks for the help.

[threedogs]

Can you explain what you mean by needing a diode in line? sounds weird to me


That big long hill n the Creb I walked, not a happy camper when I reached the top
I can tell you, how far from bottom to the top you reckon??

[NQ42GU]

From what I understand, and correct me if I am wrong as I am not real good with auto leccy stuff. The lights were earthing out through one of the other wires, a diode is like a 1 way valve for electricity so it stopped the power earthing out through the other wire.


Yeah mate that hill is a beauty, its got to be a k at least I reckon. The track was ok, it would be impossible with a bit of rain though. There was one hill that was only a hundred metres long but steep and rutted. was a good track to try the new rig out on.
Andy

[threedogs]

Maybe Yendor knows of this , cost of diode 5 cents how many did he use lol

[megatexture]

yea sounds weird i have a powerfull rear bar also and never had any issues fitting it ?
Threedogs i was in super cheap the other day and was looking at trailer plugs both i looked at had wire diagrams on them and both had 2 wires swapped over so they wouldn’t be compatible

[threedogs]

Still weird this wiring thing.
That hill just got told to hurry up as rain was on its way, it was 32 degrees whats this clown talking about, down it came bogged for 3 hours till it dried out, once 4x4 was going was not going to stop. this was 1983 so not much around in the way of mud tyres then. walked to the top humid as, not happy at all. then watched a G60 nissan tow a trailer up same hill doing it easy. nearly killed the driver but boy what a trip. loved it all had a beer and headed off to Cooktown, theres another story

[Yendor]

It's a bit hard to comment without knowing exactly where they put the diodes, 3.5hrs seems excessive.

Did you try connecting the lights earth to the original earth wire or the test one to the negative battery terminal?

Diodes have many functions, one is as you have said, they stop current flow in one direction but allow current to flow in the opposite direction.

I suspect your problem was more then likely within your stop light circuit and possibly cheap quality LED lights, the fitting of the diodes has just covered it up.

Be interesting to know if you have an electric brake unit fitted.