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grounding lights

J

jleonardwv

Member
I've been working to spruce up an old Massey Ferguson 150. On the right fender, the lights worked fine. I then removed the fender, ground out rust, patched with sheet metal and bondo, painted then re-installed. Now my lights aren't grounded and I can't figure out why. My volt meter shows power to the lights if I ground to steel bolts on the frame or even a steel screw on the quadrant. I can't seem to get it grounded anywhere on the cast iron fender bracket. I scraped off the paint around one of the fender bolts and that didn't help. I considered running a ground wire to the cast iron frame, but the cast iron doesn't seem to ground the lights.

Ideas?
 
Stop fighting it.

Run a dedicated ground wire to each light.

No more grounding problems.

Dean
 
You mean run a ground wire from the panel/battery compartment back to the fender lights? I guess that would work but seems "in-elegant." Also, the other fender lights (left) work fine grounded to the fender. I just wonder why when the fender is bolted metal (steel bolt through steel fender) to metal (cast iron fender bracket) that I'm not grounded.
 
This has [u:1768bc036a]always[/u:1768bc036a] been a common problem with lights that ground to whatever it's mounted to. The only "sure cure" is to run another single wire for ground, OR to upgrade the existing wire with another that has an additional strand for grounding.
 
Murphy's law...

Start tracing the lack of ground with your volt meter. With the lights on, and one lead grounded, start checking the sheet metal. Where ever you find voltage is the non-grounded component.

It could be in the light socket itself, or the light mounting.

Keep looking, you'll find it. Possibly a short ground wire between the fender and the casting, tucked in up under, out of sight.
 
On a different tractor, I ran a separate green ground wire to each light, from the battery, to a hose clamp fastened around each light socket. Works perfect.
 
If you removed the light from the fender and then painted the fender, that probably did it. Or, as you mentioned, where the fender bolts to the tractor. You need a continuous ground at all those points. Either remove some paint at all those locations or else run a separate ground wire as suggested.
When I paint something like that I usually put a piece of masking tape somewhere under the light so that there is a spot which doesn't get painted. [u:11825a8623]Usually[/u:11825a8623] that helps preserve the ground connection.
 
Can you find bare metal on the fender. If so measure the voltage between the hot to the light and the fender. If you have 12 volts between the hot and the fender, you need better conduction between the light and the fender. Sand away a little paint so your light grounds to the fender. If you have no or very little voltage between your hot and the fender, make up a ground wire to run between the fender and the bolt you mention on the frame.
 
You will likely fight this forever until you run a proper ground wire to each light assembly.

I've done so for decades. Never a grounding issue since I started doing so. Many such issues prior to doing so.

Dean
 
You probably did not get the paint completely cleaned off or still rust there. Need a mirror shiny finnish on both the light housing and the fender plus the fender to the cast part.
 
Put a star washer under the light mount stud and one star washer under one of the fender mounting bolts. They come in external and internal bite, and all sizes. Any good hardware store will stock them.
Example
 
(quoted from post at 17:19:40 04/30/19) Put a star washer under the light mount stud and one star washer under one of the fender mounting bolts. They come in external and internal bite, and all sizes. Any good hardware store will stock them.
Example
Click to expand...

Great idea! I should have thought of that, as I have used those too. Many times they will break through the fresh paint and get down to bare metal again.
 
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