toyota222 Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I have an '89 Sunrader 3.0 6 cylinder. I decided to pull my 5 rear (red) and 5 front (amber) incandescent clearance lights and replace them with LED's. To be clear (no pun intended), I'm leaving the side clearance lights (4 red; top and bottom, and 2 amber; top) alone until I get another surge of fix-it cash. I changed the rear lights methodically, figuring the 2 ground wires and 2 hot wires (braided) to be some kind of parallel connection. The lights worked as I replaced each from passenger side to drivers side and when I finished, I stopped to admire my work. A good day! The next day, I removed the 5 front (amber) incandescent lights, left them braided in pairs as I did in the rear, and began replacing them from the passenger side to the drivers side, like the rear lights. I had 2 completed, but the center light had no electricity. Neither did the remaining 2. Nor did the top driver side incandescent marker! (the passenger side did.) Am I looking at peeling away the wall above the driver's seat in the sleeping cab? What am I looking for? Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Good question it's some thing you have done just go backwards I'll assume you have checked the fuses. They are parallel wired. Did your LED's come with a ground wire some use the frame for a ground with one wire and of course that won't work on fiberglass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiter Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 First question, did they work before you started? If so, then probably one of the parallel wires became disconnected. Without knowing a Sunrader (I'm a Dolphin fan), I would assume they started on one side, and wired the lights in parallel. If so, goto the last light that works and remove it. See if the parallel wires became disconnected. Its either at the last light that works, or the first light that doesn't work. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toyota222 Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 So here's what I did... went to the last light that worked, and daisy-chained a ground and a hot wire to the next light and the rest of them came to life! Had to peel about 15 inches of fabric from the headliner above the front cab window on the passenger side to thread the wires through, but it beat tearing everything up there apart! Thanks for the tip, John. Mick First question, did they work before you started? If so, then probably one of the parallel wires became disconnected. Without knowing a Sunrader (I'm a Dolphin fan), I would assume they started on one side, and wired the lights in parallel. If so, goto the last light that works and remove it. See if the parallel wires became disconnected. Its either at the last light that works, or the first light that doesn't work. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supurcar Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I started to swap out a few of my markers with the LEDs. I did the other way around, I did the side markers first. I found it was a bit of work because the LEDs I used where flush mount and not much room for the wires, I had to make the holes a little bit bigger to make it work. I did notice the wires are very corroded, and I would gues that might be a common issue with older Sunraders. I have had to battle the same issue with my tailights (ground). You may have already done this, but nip the wires and restrip to get some fresher wire to connect to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiter Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 Mick; Glad to hear that worked. The Sunrader, with its one piece fiberglass shell is different than the other manufactures. These LED lights are problematic for the Sunraders, because of the flush backside. In my experimetnts with th elights, I put one in a milling machine and took about 3/16 inch off the interior part of the base so the wires could be relocated. Fortunately, this wasn't required on my Dolphin, nor should it be required in any of the sandwich construction type MHs. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Toyota Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 iHigh waiter just to say iam old scholl i solder everthing that can be soldered not always doable though but can prevent a lot of problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Toyota Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 High waiter just to say iam old scholl i solder everthing that can be soldered not always doable though but can prevent a lot of problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Toyota Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 High waiter just to say iam old scholl i solder everthing that can be soldered not always doable though but can prevent a lot of problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boots Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I have an '89 Sunrader 3.0 6 cylinder. I decided to pull my 5 rear (red) and 5 front (amber) incandescent clearance lights and replace them with LED's. To be clear (no pun intended), I'm leaving the side clearance lights (4 red; top and bottom, and 2 amber; top) alone until I get another surge of fix-it cash. I changed the rear lights methodically, figuring the 2 ground wires and 2 hot wires (braided) to be some kind of parallel connection. The lights worked as I replaced each from passenger side to drivers side and when I finished, I stopped to admire my work. A good day! The next day, I removed the 5 front (amber) incandescent lights, left them braided in pairs as I did in the rear, and began replacing them from the passenger side to the drivers side, like the rear lights. I had 2 completed, but the center light had no electricity. Neither did the remaining 2. Nor did the top driver side incandescent marker! (the passenger side did.) Am I looking at peeling away the wall above the driver's seat in the sleeping cab? What am I looking for? Help! Hi, There are a number of ways to find and fix 12 volt wiring, if you don't already own one, then first thing is to purchase a simple 12 volt test light. I am using a "INNOVA" Equus Model 3410" which is a bit fancier than the old ones but has additional features that I found to be surprisingly handy. Alternaturnately, you can purchase a "signal injector test kit (these can be expensive) and then begin the process of testing and tracing the wiring. The first tool proves whether or not you have power and/or a ground. The second tool is attached to the (suspect) wire and when activated you use the tracer to follow the wires that may be hidden in the walls. With a good quality tracer kit, you can come within a few inches of where the wire is. One other advantage of the tracer is that if the wire is broken (has become disconnected) you can trace the wire to that point where the disconnected wire is. One other point, I recently had a similiar problem on Spirit and I checked the fuses and lo and behold I had a blown fuse! I never found the reason for the fuse going, and it hasn't occured since, so I can only say check which fuse powers the outside clearance lights and see if that is the problem. I would be curious to hear what Led's you bought, model numbers and if you noticed any decrease in power consumption. Regards Brian Email me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Hi, There are a number of ways to find and fix 12 volt wiring, if you don't already own one, then first thing is to purchase a simple 12 volt test light. I am using a "INNOVA" Equus Model 3410" which is a bit fancier than the old ones but has additional features that I found to be surprisingly handy. Alternaturnately, you can purchase a "signal injector test kit (these can be expensive) and then begin the process of testing and tracing the wiring. The first tool proves whether or not you have power and/or a ground. The second tool is attached to the (suspect) wire and when activated you use the tracer to follow the wires that may be hidden in the walls. With a good quality tracer kit, you can come within a few inches of where the wire is. One other advantage of the tracer is that if the wire is broken (has become disconnected) you can trace the wire to that point where the disconnected wire is. One other point, I recently had a similiar problem on Spirit and I checked the fuses and lo and behold I had a blown fuse! I never found the reason for the fuse going, and it hasn't occured since, so I can only say check which fuse powers the outside clearance lights and see if that is the problem. I would be curious to hear what Led's you bought, model numbers and if you noticed any decrease in power consumption. Regards Brian Email me Glass fuses actually get old, the vibration over the years stretches the lead and they get thinner and what may have been a 20 amp fuse is now a 10. One of the nice things about a test light it is positive it's either lit or it's not they also load wiring down to some extent some thing a DVM will not so you may read good voltage that will take no load so often a test light is better for finding bad connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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