LED bulbs in overhead lights

[druidwood]

I just switched out all my overhead lights with LED (1156 BA15S 13-SMD 5050 6500K 12V) and now none of them work, even if I put the original bulb back in a socket or two - haven't tried switching them all back out again. So I admit I don't understand all the numbers that follow the bulb type - is there a type that works and I just bought the wrong ones, or is there some reason that LED can't go in my TC2000 bluebird overhead lights (i.e. does it all need rewiring)? Thanks.

[Brad_SwiftFur]

I think I would have swapped one or two at first, then tried them before swapping the rest. At any rate, I can't imagine a reason they shouldn't work unless the circuit has a reversed polarity (it shouldn't have) or the switch/dimmer relies on the current draw of the incandescent bulbs. 1156 type bulbs are fairly common so this should work.

[Robin97396]

Usually the issue is a loss of ground.

[druidwood]

It had just occurred to me that I also did unscrew all the plates and have them hanging as I plan to paint - and as they only have one wire I guess that screw holding the light plate to the roof is the ground. Will try reattaching one and see if that helps. Thanks.

[BlackJohn]

Originally Posted by druidwood

It had just occurred to me that I also did unscrew all the plates and have them hanging as I plan to paint - and as they only have one wire I guess that screw holding the light plate to the roof is the ground. Will try reattaching one and see if that helps. Thanks.

Bingo I call.

John

[Robin97396]

There may be hope for my poor electrical skills yet. I even cleaned my battery terminals without any arc welding recently.

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Originally Posted by druidwood

It had just occurred to me that I also did unscrew all the plates and have them hanging as I plan to paint - and as they only have one wire I guess that screw holding the light plate to the roof is the ground. Will try reattaching one and see if that helps. Thanks.

Yep. That would do it. One wire - electricity goes in. It has to come out somewhere - in this case, through the mounting screws.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Something else you could do if you are wanting to use the lights while you are painting or to eliminate the frame screw for ground is to add a dedicated ground wire from each light frame to the body.
I didn't do that to the interior lights but I had a problem with the new lights I added that were surface mounted on top of wood and screwed through the wood to the sheetmetal framing that I added. The first time we went out I Had one of my kids bed/reading light that kept kind of fluttering and everything looked good until I went to back the screws out to check the wiring.
I used painted screws and the light frame was painted so as I turned the screw the scratched spots would spark. So instead of depending on the screws to ground out the fixture I ran a clean and dedicated ground back to the bus body for each of mine.
But I had ran conduit and or tubing for anything new that I did that was inaccessible.
That allowed me the chance to add or replace/upgrade as needed
Have fun and stay safe.

[golfersmurf57]

For LED fanatics. They're diodes so polarity is critical. Testing before installing will give you pos and neg connections. I may convert later but will use the existing coach fixtures they're recessed and look fancy enough for use.

Sent from my LGL64VL using Tapatalk

[druidwood]

Will do a ground wire on my lights Jolly Roger - as I discovered "condensation" once I was running heat and painting in the bus, so all the metal roofing has to come off, so there goes my ground.