Headlight/tail light problems

[Barber31]

Will do all the suggestions as soon as I can and report back.
Dawizard- the starter connections look clean and good to me. I just thought of another question. As I said before my horn used to blow strong and loud before the test. So if it was working does that mean it has a good ground thru the bar and fenders to frame? Or is it grounded thru one of the wires ?

[Bob C]

It's grounded thru the wire from the horn button.

Bob

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by Mitch//pa

No DAD its way more complicated than that...

Yes, I know, but you MUST understand the circuitry, before you can even INTELLIGENTLY use a simple TEST LIGHT
In 3 minutes & 37 seconds, with a test light, the problem/problems, can be located!
SA Dad

[Barber31]

The voltage reading is low but is consistent from the battery to the switch. Directly from the battery reads 4.12v. Every contact reads the same from starter- fuse- coil- box- cut out- yellow wire on switch. I did some cleaning on the terminals and wires and I got more lights working but not correctly. With lever in park position, no headlamps but semi bright tail lamps. In the off position, everything is off. In the low beam position, headlamps are on but tail lamp has only one led lit. In the high beam position, the park lamp bulbs both light up and the rear lamp is semi bright again. No brake light in any position.

[Tom Wesenberg]

If you only measure 4.12 volts, then it sounds like your battery has a shorted cell.
If it has a shorted cell, then the battery charger should show full scale charge and trip the thermal circuit breaker.

[Barber31]

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Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

If it has a shorted cell, then the battery charger should show full scale charge and trip the thermal circuit breaker.

I don't understand that last part. So if I hook up the charger you're saying it will show full charge confirming I have a shorted cell? And the circuit breaker is in the charger?

[DaWizard]

*rolls eyes* Ok, first of all, your battery is FUBAR, and yes, the thermal overload protector is inside the charger.

Now, while 4.2v is enough to dimly light an incandescent light bulb, it is barely enough to fire off an LED, let alone all of them with a light bulb too.

So, the indication that you had with all the LEDs lit means that the other bulbs on the circuit are not hooked up, or "open" because they are not taking away voltage/current from the LEDs.

Get a good charged battery and start at the beginning. When a light doesn't light, take it out, and replace it with a "known" good bulb and check again. Take apart the headlight plugs and clean with a bit of fine emery cloth, and do the same with the tail light sockets.

Then post what happens.

J.C.

[katy]

I don't understand that last part. So if I hook up the charger you're saying it will show full charge confirming I have a shorted cell? And the circuit breaker is in the charger?

Depends on the charger.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Barber31

I don't understand that last part. So if I hook up the charger you're saying it will show full charge confirming I have a shorted cell? And the circuit breaker is in the charger?

I have 4 or 5 battery chargers, and they are all 4 to 6 amp with a meter showing the amps going into the battery. A low very battery may have 5.9 volts, so the meter may show 6 amps on my 6 amp charger. Once the battery is charged to 6.1 volts the amps will taper back to maybe 3 amps. A fully charged battery will be about 6.4 volts, and the charger will only show about a 1 amp charge.

If a battery with a shorted cell is placed on the charger, then the charger is trying to push 7 volts into a 4.15 volt battery, and this will peg the meter. The same thing will happen if I flip the switch to 12 volts and use that on a 6 volt battery.

All my chargers have an internal circuit breaker, so if the charge is too high the circuit breaker will cut the power rather than let the battery charger overheat.

[bnchief]

When i wire a car from scratch i start at the battery, check the voltage i also use a battery disconnect switch ground from battery to switch switch to engine then engine to frame and body if you have this test each light wiring for proper voltage with your ohmmeter test as you wire can save some head scratching later,i also test lights to make sure hot is not grounding out as well i am running 12v neg ground also.

[Barber31]

Thank you Tom and DA for that detailed info. Electrical is definitely not my forte. I appreciate y'all being patient with me. I have the bulbs ordered so I'm waiting on those but in the meantime I got the battery charged and reading 6.3v so I hooked everything up according to wiring diagram and took a drive. A block down the road my fuse popped. So I'm assuming that yellow wire in the switch was feeding power to other wires that had resistance due to bad or no connections and that's why the fuse blew. I hope my reasoning doesn't make me look more of a dunce. So I unhooked it and took it for another stroll and the new fuse didn't pop. So I guess I'll wait on the bulbs and start from scratch at the battery as suggested. Thanks again

[H. L. Chauvin]

FWIW:

Just one (1) opinion:

Reply no. 23 intelligently recommending a circuit diagram appears to be about as important as having a diagram or a map of Europe during, and immediately after the WWII Normandy Invasion.

Behind scratching and sitting on the Normandy Beaches eating K-Rations during WWII without a map would have proved futile.

Not knowing the diagrammatic trails of Model A electricity & Model A grounds also always leads to weeks of Model A owner behind scratching & raw behind irritation.

Just hope this helps someone to listen to Mr. Bill Willamson's advice in reply no. 23.

[Barber31]

Good news! I got my lights working. I also have that colored wiring diagram that y'all have been referring to and every time I stared at it I just knew it was hooked up right. Especially with being such a simple setup. As someone stated there's only 7 or 8 connections. So I took yalls advice to start from the beginning and meticulously inspect every connection. Well lo and behold I find the culprit is crossed wires on the headlamp conduit connections. 2 wires were not in the correct location on the little black ferrules inside the conduit. Thank you again to everybody that posted to help me especially Dawizard and Tom for being the most patient with me. I'm very grateful.

[DaWizard]

Great news Barber, glad to have helped. Most times it is the simplest things that throw you for a loop.

I have learned that troubleshooting is just a matter of starting at the beginning and working to the fix.

Well done!

[1931 flamingo]

Thanks for staying "thru" the opportunity presented and letting us know it's fixed.
Paul in CT

[Barber31]

No problem Paul. I'll also work on going through spelling out complete words and try not to be in such a hurry. Sorry.

[pawillie]

got tail light tail running light won't go off. Burns always.

[bobbader]

Sure it's not the stop light and the switch is not shutting off?