Fixing Stern Light (Should be Simple!!!)

[txarmydude]

Hey, some of you guys with a little more experience could maybe help me out...

My rear light is not working. I just replaced the breaker on the NAV lights, which have never worked. I went ahead and replaced all bulbs, and that seemed to do the trick for all except the stern light. After tracing the wires, I found one wire to be disconnected.

When I test the wires on the voltmeter, it reads 12 Volts on BOTH wires. I assume this is because the power is flowing through the light, meaning that the hot wire is connected. My question is this: Do I just hook the extra wire up to the ground? It seems to me that hooking a hot wire to the ground would just blow the breaker.

Here are some pics. As you can see, the voltmeter shows 12V when testing either wire. Many thanks for your help!

 

[txarmydude]

Re: Fixing Stern Light (Should be Simple!!!)

Ran it straight to ground and it works fine.

 

[scrapheap51]

Re: Fixing Stern Light (Should be Simple!!!)

Make sure power to the lights are on, Put black test lead on ground, use red test lead to test voltage of light socket.(Without bulb in place) Take bulb out and if there are 2 contacts on the botom only 1 should read 12v( other reads 0 volts) if it only has 1 contact on the bottom it should still read 12 volts (ground would be the side contact of the socket.) If this is true check your bulb by using ohms on your tester to make sure bulb is actually good. ( I had new bulbs end up bad). If bulb is good make sure the contacts are the same on the bulb as socket. I seen people install look a like bulb with single contact as well as dual contacts into the wrong socKet. (It can happen). I hope this will help you. Ron

 

[scrapheap51]

Re: Fixing Stern Light (Should be Simple!!!)

ooops I see you got it fixed. Sorry