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TR2/3/3A TR3 Lights

mountainman

Jedi Trainee
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I know you guys must think I am a real dumb dumb with some of these questions but I am confused with this wiring stuff on my TR. To start with what are the two red bee hive lights in the rear I think they are the turn signal lights but when I have lic plate and rear tail light wired up these come on very dim also, checking the voltage I have 12 volts to them. I have a new wiring harness but do you think I have a short somewhere and if so where should I look for it.
Thanks
Greg
 
The two L594 ("beehive") lamps are indeed for the turn signals. There should be no power to them unless the appropriate Left or Right flasher circuit is activated. Said circuit should be (for the "hot" lead) green w/red wire for the Left side and green w/white wire for the Right side. Any chance that you've got a solid red wire running to each, or that the "hot" lead from those lamps is connected to other red wires?

OTOH, you say they're dim, so that also would likely indicate a grounding problem with those lamps...or somewhere else in the boot area!

I'd guess you'll need to spend some time very carefully tracing ALL the wires to ALL your rear lamps!
 
:iagree:
There is also a chance it could be wiring problems at the front of the car. The green/red and green/white circuits also run to the beehive lamps on the grille, along with a red wire for the marker filaments in the same lamps. If the front lamps are not grounded, or are mis-wired, the red circuit might feed enough power into the green/red and green/white to dimly light the rear lamps (and look like 12v with the rear lamps disconnected).

Lots of folks get really confused, so don't feel bad. I think the main problem is that electrons are invisible. In other words, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic !!
 
mountainman said:
I know you guys must think I am a real dumb dumb with some of these questions...

Greg - I enjoy your questions. As noted, a bad ground (Bad Ground, Bad!) is very likely what you're seeing. Unable to find a good ground where it should be those little electrons go running off in the wrong direction. How's that for a description, can you believe I'm not even an engineer?

Randall -- Tourette's Syndrome? That's rich (didn't dare comment on the subject thread itself).
 
Thanks guy's They are now working. I didn't have all the grounds hook up.
 
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