This Old Trailer: Finding and Fixing Wiring Shorts Part 2

Finding and Fixing a Wiring Short Part 2 Episode of This Old Trailer

Now we will move on to another circuit. In this case it will be the right turn circuit. And we will just check the signal on that. On the right turn signal here again, the same principle applies. Start from the front and work you way back. What happens a lot is that on some of these lights here where the wire gets ran in behind it, there is a channel that these wires fit into. However a lot of times, even on brand new trailers. This wire actually does not fit in the channel, they miss when they put it together. The wire gets smashed between the light and the frame of the trailer. Eventually they wear down to a minuscule spec of wire that is visible but it will cause a short and all kinds of headaches.

This came to be a perfect example. All right you see the green wire here that has actually been flattened compared to the brown wire which was sitting in the track like it is supposed to. This green wire here was smashed. And you can tell because there is a very small dot of copper wire. It is flushed with the surface of the installation so that was touching the frame and that causes our short. Even this could be intermittent maybe the right bump could make it short out or it could be just permanently there and you will be blowing fuses left and right. So this is kind of a bright color so this break in the insulation was pretty recent. So basically there is two ways about it.

Put in another section of wire or if there is enough slack in here you can probably just cut off the offending part of the wire and just reinstall it into the light itself. Which I think is what we will do in this case. To take out the wires here, there is these little holes on the bottom and they push back on the tabs that hold the wire in place. A perfect tool for this is actually an eyeglass screwdriver. You can use a piece of stiff wire to do the same job. In fact this one just came right out. So we do not have to worry about that one. We are still going to remove the brown one too just to have some more working room for now. We might as well check that one too. So, we will just put our wire in there. Just push it in and then wiggle out the brown wire. There it goes. Part of our problem was here when you install these wires into the light always twist these tight it makes the little tab work better. If it is loose like this, it will just flatten out and the tab will release over time. So we will just go ahead and just cut of the offending sections here. Make them both even and reinstall the wires. All of these little things can add up to a little short and a lot of headache. Think of it as these are your usual suspects to check out first when you have a problem. That is what we do in the shop. All basic steps we do. 03:13.

Get them twisted and put them right back into the labeled holes. This one is labeled brown so we will go ahead and install it in the brown spot. Okay same thing with the green where right turn is labeled. Okay make sure your wire goes back into the track. Maybe a piece of tape to hold it in place would work too. As long as you keep tension on it you can go ahead and reinstall the light. Another way you can tell you have got it right is your light will fit flush against the frame bracket here. Give it a test run. Go ahead and check our repair and give it a quick test run here. Okay, the next short we are going to talk about is the bulb inside here. Sometimes on these trailers the lights bounce around so much that the bulb itself gets jarred loose. So sometimes you want to go ahead and take it apart and check that. So we will go ahead and take the lens off. When you go to inspect your bulb take a look at the filaments themselves. Make sure it is level. Most lights, when they are set up properly, the filaments will be in a level spot. If it is a little bit crooked like that, that is where you can get a short to come into play. Or one circuit will work. The running light will work but the turn signal will not. We are actually going to turn it to the left a little bit and then work the bulb out.

Now if it was really corroded up inside there, you probably want to use some gloves to take this out. When you put the bulb back in make sure that the pins are in the right way and take a look at the slots in the light fixture itself. If you put it in backwards you are going to be mashing this thing pretty far in there and it will be sitting at a really odd angle. Something like this, see how the filaments are at a goofy angle. That means you will not get a circuit working or you will be causing a short. Or if you have it just far enough we will contact through the bulb we will actually cross both of the contacts behind it. Just make sure that you have everything. Your bulb is good and is clean inside there. That is another unusual suspect that you want to check out. Make sure you put the bulb in the correct way. It should have some friction but once you get past it it should twist relatively easily in the bulb. Once it is properly seated it really should not move around too much. Now we got it. Okay and we got the running light. One other thing that could actually cause a short I see from time to time is this little bulb on the inside here, the running light one. I think it burns out. You take it out. Sometimes those little contacts will actually touch each other inside there and cause a short that way too. The inspection is completed on this light so you can go ahead and just reassemble the lens on it. 06:37.