shorts

[papa2sweet]

i have been catching hell with shorts i have ashort in my running lights on the right side of my bus and draining my battery i cant seem to find it i was wondering if any of you member know of anyone who can make me a new wire harness for the lights i had anew wire harnass made for the n-14 when i change the eng.any suggestion or location of a good automotive elect. on the east coast near new england area well lets see i have check each light to no avail i hook up the cut off switch was orgn. on the bus i seem to find where the feed is coming from the right dir. signal stay on but it will also blink if you turn it on it just dont shut off when you cancel it oh i do have the manuel for my coach

[Dreamscape]

I can't help with an electrician, sorry.

Do you have a battery cut off switch? That might help so you don't drain your batts down until you can fix the problem.

Have you checked each light socket for a bare wire or water/condensation?

Paul

[rusty]

The problem with redoing the light wiring is the wires that are in the roof of the bus. If your bus is finished inside those wires are covered up. If it is clearance lights it could very well be one of the wires that are covered up. Are you blowing any fuses? If so you have a short. If your batteries are going dead are you shure it is your clearance lights? There are other circuits that where for passenger lighting that could have open circuits causing battery drain. The best way is to take one circuit at a time and see if it has current. If you are blowning fuses than trace and isolate the short. If you redo the light wire harness you are better off tearing every thing out and starting over. The wiring for the lights is the biggest part of the wiring. About half of the wires you see are not needed. You will need a good wiring diagram to get started to find your problem.

Good Luck Wayne

[van]

Hi sherman,do you have the service manual,with that and a multi meter you should be able to trace back thru the circuit to locate the short.In most cases as Paul indicated the problem can be contributed to corroded contacts within the light sockets themselves
How long has this problem been evident? I know you guys in the north east quadrant have had some significant rain this past season .I was suppose to travel to L.I.NY in sept and would have gladly come up to assist,but our situation has changed(unfortunately)dramatically and do not have the funds to travel at this time.Are you getting a draw with just the running lights on?check each bulb socket individually for corroded ,broken or otherwise shorted out sockets,some may even be submerged in water and you won't know till you pull the lens off
I don't have the manual,but other members here do and will be happy to guide you through the circuits by the numbers.Good luck

P.s I will search for the wiring diagram and see if I can assist you

sorry rusty already posted

[papa2sweet]

i have been catching hell with shorts i have ashort in my running lights on the right side of my bus and draining my battery i cant seem to find it i was wondering if any of you member know of anyone who can make me a new wire harness for the lights i had anew wire harnass made for the n-14 when i change the eng.any suggestion or location of a good automotive elect. on the east coast near new england area

ithank everyone who responded i have a multi meter and a bus manuel so if anyone want to assist me on line to chase out the shorts i will be greatly appecated i would put a new wire harness in that would cet rid of the old harness and contact like w.schell did i just have to find someone who can help i change my light for the l.e.d. kit that eagle offers i dont haave the cut off switches still hook but i am going to hook the switch back up so i can shut down the battery with out un hooking the battery manuelly i appecate anyone commited on my problem i think chase the problem dpwn it is not a short that ihave it a wire that feed the right side of my bus running lights that is hooked to a power lead that is staying hot all the time the light swtch or the ing. is not shutting it off i think there must be one wire that come from the runing lights that goes each to a swich or the cold side of the ing. oh by the way i had a electition over to check out the the problem he left scatching his head said he was coming back the next day he didnt show

[Dreamscape]

Sherman,

Since you have a manual with the electrical schematic, I would locate in the panel where the running lights for the side in question is located, remove the wire from the relay or fuse, do a continuity test to the wire feeding the lights to ground. Make sure no power to the panel first! Then go forward from there to each light socket. Remove the bulbs and test the socket, hot side to ground again. Troubleshooting through the forum is very difficult to do. All we do is give you ideas on how to do it.

Replacing the harness is OK to do, but really the wires should be fine, it's the things that it is connected to that go bad. That is if the wiring is OEM.

It just takes time to troubleshoot a short, most of the time it's the obvious that causes the problem. Just isolate the problem from the rest of the circuit so you don't get backfeed.

Remember this, do one wire at a time, if there are no wire labels make some with masking tape and marker, go slow, take pictures if necessary as you progress, take a tablet and write down everything, drawing or whatever you need to refer to when you hook things back up.

[Dreamscape]

Sherman,

I've been thinking of your situation a lot lately, more than my own stuff it seems!

Any qualified electrician should be able to read the schematic and figure out what to do. Does not need to have Eagle knowledge although it would help to have some experience in buses.

Can you get to the OEM wiring inside your coach? If it's hidden than that can pose a big problem to try to do it correctly.

I cut the loom completely out of mine and ran new wires to all markers. But that was when it was stripped. The reason for that is most of the old OEM wires we don't use in a conversion, speaker, overhead light etc.

Please give us more details so we can help lead you in the right direction.

Paul