Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 05-01-2005, 07:11 PM   #1
Skoolie
 
pangaia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Low Desert Mountains, So. California
Posts: 111
Brake, reverse, flashers not exactly working

Can't believe I did this most silly of things. On my skoolie I have an interior light monitor which use to monitor exterior lights . I went about disconnecting all the non-essential electrical thingies, I pulled the interior monitor out NOT KNOWING and w/o checking what line goes where that er...well, it made all the lights work as well as monitored them.

Long story short, I got no brake lights, no flashers, no reverse, the stop sign was screwy but I pulled that out and capped it off. Luckily the turn signals and head lights still work!

Lesson learned from newbie-don't pull out electrical units unless you know where it goes!

Ugh. Can I find the right wires and connect them to some other source (i.e. the clips) were constant electricity will supply them w/o making another big mess?

__________________
'Before you go out seeking revenge you must first dig two holes'--Chinese Proverb
-------------------
Bright Blessings of the Mother upon you ;)
----------------
1990 International Ward Volunteer "Fantastic Voyage"
pangaia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2005, 12:58 PM   #2
Bus Geek
 
lapeer20m's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: near flint michigan
Posts: 2,657
Electrical puzzles like this one are not that complicated.


All the lights should be grounded already. To make any of them turn on, all you need to do is apply 12 volt + current.

The first thing you should do is find a good source of 12v+ current and attach a length of wire, prefereably with a small alligator clip on one end. We'll call this the hot wire.

Be careful not to accidentally let the conductor of this wire touch anything metal as it will cause a short.

Strip an inch or so off of each wire that used to be connected the little box you removed. You can connect the hot wire to each of them one at a time, then walk around the outside of the bus and see which light is now lit up. Use a little caution, as one of those wires could be a ground. You'll know immediately as it will spark violently and get hot if left connected. It also may blow a fuse, or if you're lucky an auto-reset circiut breaker. Label each wire with a piece of tape and a sharpie marker or something similiar. When you're finished, you'll be able to identify which wire controlls which light.

That's half the battle. Now you need to figure out which of the unlabeled wires control which device. You'll either need a test light, or a volt meter. Connect the alligator clip for the test light to a good ground. Then connect the other end to one of the suspected wires. Now try each of the devices that don't work one at a time. ie: brake, turn, reverse, ect until you find the one that lights up your test light. Label that wire, and move on to the next.

Once you have all the wires labeled for the devices you plan to use ie: brake, turn, ect, simply connect the two wires that are labeled for the same device. Then go out and make sure all the lights work properly.

You might get lucky and find that the wires are already color coded, in which case you could test then connect at a much faster rate.

hope this helps
__________________
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (who will watch the watchmen?)
lapeer20m is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2005, 06:27 PM   #3
Skoolie
 
pangaia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Low Desert Mountains, So. California
Posts: 111
lapeer, its a good idea but lots of steps involved though. But to answer your last question not only are the wires color coded but also numbered. I think for a good laugh on some electrictian's group I'll leave it so they can have a good laugh. Puzzle yes indeed!

It crossed my mind that I could just take the break lights, reverse lights & turn signals housings off and check the lines. After all, the rubber needs replacement on them anyway so I'd get this project outta the way .
__________________
'Before you go out seeking revenge you must first dig two holes'--Chinese Proverb
-------------------
Bright Blessings of the Mother upon you ;)
----------------
1990 International Ward Volunteer "Fantastic Voyage"
pangaia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2005, 06:34 PM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 25
Simplest thing would be to put the monitor back in if you still have it
~B~
1979GMC6000 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2005, 07:13 PM   #5
Skoolie
 
pangaia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Low Desert Mountains, So. California
Posts: 111
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1979GMC6000
Simplest thing would be to put the monitor back in if you still have it
~B~
Which would be totally awesome.....if I knew which wire went where. And I do not wish to have that ugly monitor up there-clashes with my style.

Er....thanks anyway.
__________________
'Before you go out seeking revenge you must first dig two holes'--Chinese Proverb
-------------------
Bright Blessings of the Mother upon you ;)
----------------
1990 International Ward Volunteer "Fantastic Voyage"
pangaia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2005, 07:38 PM   #6
Bus Geek
 
lapeer20m's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: near flint michigan
Posts: 2,657
if you lived near me, i'd just come over and do it for ya. I love electrical projects. We'd have it sorted out and soldered back together in under an hour.

where are you from?
__________________
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (who will watch the watchmen?)
lapeer20m is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2005, 01:15 AM   #7
Skoolie
 
pangaia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Low Desert Mountains, So. California
Posts: 111
Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
if you lived near me, i'd just come over and do it for ya. I love electrical projects. We'd have it sorted out and soldered back together in under an hour.

where are you from?
Southern California Riverside Co. to be exact!
er...just a hop skip and a jump from Michigan no? *g*
Thank you for the offer
__________________
'Before you go out seeking revenge you must first dig two holes'--Chinese Proverb
-------------------
Bright Blessings of the Mother upon you ;)
----------------
1990 International Ward Volunteer "Fantastic Voyage"
pangaia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2005, 12:53 PM   #8
Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Northeastern CO
Posts: 247
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: International
I'd like to know how they wired mine, all (90%+) the wires are white with a red stripe, a few have yellow stripes. they must have been bored and ran the wires one at a time.
Demonknight is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Reverse light and beeper. billofhouma Everything Else | General Skoolie Discussions 13 05-09-2021 09:31 AM
Bus won't start after removing flashers/stop sign tomas_maly Conversion General Discussions 28 06-20-2017 12:34 PM
Options for flashers wmkbailey Conversion General Discussions 9 07-05-2013 08:02 PM
light flashers Soundman1 Classifieds | Buy, Sell, Swap 6 07-20-2012 10:00 AM
air brake 101...or how to fix/diagnois a stuck brake issue bansil Conversion General Discussions 16 06-28-2012 02:28 PM

» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:50 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.