Rear light earth conversion

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Attack2001
Posts: 1015
Joined: 05 Jun 2011 03:45 pm
Location: Rochester, Kent
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Rear light earth conversion

Post by Attack2001 » 07 Sep 2012 02:58 am

Hi all, i had the same problem most have with the rear lights and them going skitzoid because the earths were failing. I had to do some research into how to cure the problem, but i found all of one picture, so i thought i might as well write how i did it. Even if it helps one person, thats better than nothing :D Its written to help the noobies, so its written simply, but i gather a lot of you guys know how to do it anyway, but, im just trying to be useful! So here we go, hope you dont get bored :lol:

So, i thought i needed to do the conversion at first, but i cleaned up all the contacts, and they started to work better. Then this happened, and it all started messing about again so i thought bugger it, time to do the conversion.

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Oops :oops:

I managed to fix that one, which was a bit harder than the rest, but i got the pictures of the rest :)

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Take one bulb holder, and using a very small flat bladed screwdriver, you hook it under the loop at the top of the bulb holder and work the brass contact up, and off the holder. Like so:

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Now the contact needs to be cleaned, so i used a strip of quite coarse emery cloth folded in half and used the folded edge.

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Now comes the less tricky bit, the first ones you do will be so so, but once you get the hang of it you'l fly through em. See now the way i did the earth conversion was to use the mounts of the rear lights. So i cut up enough lenth of wires to go from the bulb holders to the nut that holds the rear lights in. On one end of your length of wires (however you intend to earth all the wires) strip the sheathing off about 3/4 inch to an inch. The wire needs to be 'tinned' whereby you put a layer of solder around the length of the wire. Simply done by heating the wire up using a soldering iron, and then slowly applying solder to the wire as you move the soldering iron along underneath the wire, keeping contact to keep the heat. It should look like this:

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Now the really tricky bit, these pictures are of one of the last ones i did, as it took me a few attempts on each other one to get it done right haha :lol: You need to heat the contact up enough, that when you lay the piece of wire on top the solder melts and joins the wire to the contact, however try not to touch the solder with the iron as for some reason it picks up the solder and you end up with a dollop on the end of the soldering iron and have to do it again (well it did with my soldering iron, and was rather annoying!) It should look something like this - (can you tell this is one of the ones that took a few attempts haha :lol:)

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Once you've done this for each holder, you push the contact back into its original position in the holder, and then back in the cluster It should look like this:

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I've left the earth strip in, purely as it helps hold the holders in as the little clips on either side of my holders were naff. Once this was done, i crimped a ring terminal onto the end of each wire, attached them to the fixing stud of the rear lights, ensuring all the paint was cleaned off and voila! My weeks worth of "AHHHHHH WHY ARE MY INDICATORS COMING ON WHEN I PUT IT IN REVERSE!!!! sm2 sm2 sm2 " were fixed in one nights worth of work :)

Hope this is of some help to you guys :D

Thomas....................
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Chris_C
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Re: Rear light earth conversion

Post by Chris_C » 07 Sep 2012 09:37 am

I've lost the original photos that were in my how to, your's is more detailed anyway :D Nice one, ta.
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macplaxton
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Re: Rear light earth conversion

Post by macplaxton » 07 Sep 2012 11:17 am

Pah! You could of at least used a brown wire for the earths and keep a bit of consistency to the wiring colour scheme :P
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Attack2001
Posts: 1015
Joined: 05 Jun 2011 03:45 pm
Location: Rochester, Kent
Contact:

Re: Rear light earth conversion

Post by Attack2001 » 07 Sep 2012 12:55 pm

macplaxton wrote:Pah! You could of at least used a brown wire for the earths and keep a bit of consistency to the wiring colour scheme :P
My cars red, so i went with red :wink:

Haha nah i just needed it done asap and didnt have any brown/black wire :)

Thomas...................
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