12-12-2023, 07:10 PM
I figured out what was happening. Newell ran a ground from the shades on the drivers side shade switchback over to the passenger footwell fuse panel. The fuse panel has three ground posts. One is a stack of grounds, the other is what I thought was grounds but a stack of marker light terminals tied together and the third is the driving lights terminals tied together. At first I thought there were three grounds since when the power was off, all three posts acted as grounds. When the marker lights and other exterior lights were turned on, those two posts to the right (in the pic) were energized.
So I believe in two things that may have happened. 1st is that newell ran the shade ground to the marker lights which when powered up, would no longer become a closed circuit ground for the shades and thus not allowing you to operate shades accidentally at night.
2nd, is newell may have put what they thought as the ground for the shades on the wrong post and not on the actual ground post.
My theory is that when the marker light circuit was off the shades would work by having the ground path flow through the marker light filaments. When the marker lights were on, the same 12v circuit now lost the ground path for the shades thereby acting as a safety cut off for night use. (The shades never worked when the incandescent marker lights were on at night)
When I installed new LED marker lights, I effectively opened the "temporary" ground path since the LED markers do not have filaments.
Unfortunately for me, the black trophy dash material cracked a bit more as I flexed in there to located the shade wiring. It's a freaking mess of wiring that's black taped together and tossed behind the dash. This aspect could have been done better when it was built. I need to figure out what I can use to fill the cracks in the dash. if anyone has ideas on products, let me know.
Anyway, I hope this helps others when figuring out why something doesn't work. I usually troubleshoot electrical issues in my business by finding what was last touched. I would never have thought swapping out the side markers would have lead me to a false ground issue.
In the first pic you can see the three terminal posts with the main grounds on the top left, side marker terminals on the top right where the shade ground was once pinned and the bottom right which is the driving light terminal post. All this repair took was moving the wire from top right to top left post. All is working now.
So I believe in two things that may have happened. 1st is that newell ran the shade ground to the marker lights which when powered up, would no longer become a closed circuit ground for the shades and thus not allowing you to operate shades accidentally at night.
2nd, is newell may have put what they thought as the ground for the shades on the wrong post and not on the actual ground post.
My theory is that when the marker light circuit was off the shades would work by having the ground path flow through the marker light filaments. When the marker lights were on, the same 12v circuit now lost the ground path for the shades thereby acting as a safety cut off for night use. (The shades never worked when the incandescent marker lights were on at night)
When I installed new LED marker lights, I effectively opened the "temporary" ground path since the LED markers do not have filaments.
Unfortunately for me, the black trophy dash material cracked a bit more as I flexed in there to located the shade wiring. It's a freaking mess of wiring that's black taped together and tossed behind the dash. This aspect could have been done better when it was built. I need to figure out what I can use to fill the cracks in the dash. if anyone has ideas on products, let me know.
Anyway, I hope this helps others when figuring out why something doesn't work. I usually troubleshoot electrical issues in my business by finding what was last touched. I would never have thought swapping out the side markers would have lead me to a false ground issue.
In the first pic you can see the three terminal posts with the main grounds on the top left, side marker terminals on the top right where the shade ground was once pinned and the bottom right which is the driving light terminal post. All this repair took was moving the wire from top right to top left post. All is working now.
--Simon
1993 8v92TA #312