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I have a 70 Power Wagon. My marker lights are not working. I have 1 or 2 that work. Will a 71 marker light be able to work? The 70 marker lights are a 1 wire set up. The 71 I believe is the one where you have to twist the light into the marker housing. Will this require 2 wires to the bulb? I would like to keep the original set up but hard to find working marker lights. Any other ideas on how to get these working? Some of my wires are broken off the 70 marker lens housings. Can they be soldered on?

Wizard

Yes things can be soldered.
Do some checking for voltage with a test light of multimeter before removing any existing pieces. You may very well be having a lack of ground connection issue. The fact that "some" of the lights work lead me to believe that your switch is good & you have either an open circuit in the wiring or are not getting good ground.

Bucky

Yes, I have done the testing with test light and ohm meter. Another question I have if you take off the light housing and connect a ohm meter to the end of wire/brass lug and to the connector wire where plugs into harness you get a open but if you move it to a lttle to the ring connector that goes to the brass lug on back of housing it is a direct short which is what you want. Also from the back of brass lug to inside where the bulb goes is also showing a open. Should that show a direct short?? If you connect ohm meter to where it plugs into harness to the inside where the bulb sits it is showing a open which is not what you want right??

Wizard

712edf wrote:Yes things can be soldered.
Do some checking for voltage with a test light of multimeter before removing any existing pieces. You may very well be having a lack of ground connection issue. The fact that "some" of the lights work lead me to believe that your switch is good & you have either an open circuit in the wiring or are not getting good ground.

Bucky

Hey Bucky, a bad ground is an open, eh?

Yes.

Lights needs a complete (closed) ground circuit AND a complete (closed) voltage circuit.

Bucky

Wizard wrote:Yes, I have done the testing with test light and ohm meter. Another question I have if you take off the light housing and connect a ohm meter to the end of wire/brass lug and to the connector wire where plugs into harness you get a open but if you move it to a lttle to the ring connector that goes to the brass lug on back of housing it is a direct short which is what you want. Also from the back of brass lug to inside where the bulb goes is also showing a open. Should that show a direct short?? If you connect ohm meter to where it plugs into harness to the inside where the bulb sits it is showing a open which is not what you want right??

Wizard

Housing is grounded to/through the body when everything is hooked up & it contacts the outer part (base) of the bulb. There should be no continuity between it & the inner wire/lug of the housing. The ground & voltage circuits "meet" in the filament inside the bulb.

Bucky

712edf wrote:...........The ground & voltage circuits "meet" in the filament inside the bulb.........
Bucky

Actually, there is only one "circuit", not two, and it is defined as the complete loop, or "circuit", that the electrons flow thru from the negative post of the battery to the positive post. There is the ground (neg) leg and the hot (pos) leg. Both are connected to the load (filament) which completes the circuit. Switches may be placed in either leg to "open" the circuit. IE, the horn switch and dome light switches are in the neg leg, most other switches are in the pos leg.
(just mess'n with ya man cuz I know u know this)

Yeah I know in my head how it works, but I don't use the proper terminology, and dang sure cant explain it to others.

That horn switch being in the neg leg once gave me fits, couldn't figure out why horn had power but still wouldn't work.

I'm thinking Wizard has a ground issue, but could be something else.

Bucky

Yes, probably my grounding issues. Also, if I use a 71 marker light. Anyone know where I can get the screw in light with the wire attached to it? The other wire I found out connects to the brass terminal for grounding. This one also is a one wire plug into my wire harness. I can get the lenses/housings. Just need the wire set up for the 71-77 wires I guess. Not looking to get much money into this. Do not need NOS quality or prices.

Wizard

A trailer or RV dealer/service dept may be able to help with that. They are a jillion different lighting set-ups in their line of work.

Bucky

Yes, will check in with my local trailer dealer/repair shop. Should be able to handle it with no problem.

thnks,

Wizard