Side Marker Lights MKIII

[Pete930]

Mk III Murranji, the side maker lights have stopped working on both sides.

All other electrical is fine, all other taillights are working.

Anyone know where the feed for the side marker lights to tail light main wiring is located ?

Cheers Pete

[Alien]

On our Mk2, I'd expect the Mk3 to be similar the marker light wires are behind the internal side pocket vertical bracket running down to the loom also under a protective flashing between the bed base and wall.
Cheers Kyle

[Pete930]

Yes it's a strange one Kyle, just got back from a short trip away, all tail lights work except both side marker lights.

Then they started to work again on their own, the obvious flex sections of cable feeding the rear lights on the rear deck checked, does not affect light operation either way.

Connection point that feeds both side markers will be the issue for sure, but where is that located ? Possibly in drivers side battery box or behind main power box that sits above it.

Don't really want to pull apart too much gear, not that I'm not capable just totally over doing things the hard way, I do it for a living.

Pete

[Alien]

See if any of these help Pete (found on another post)...
http://www.tracktrailerforums.com/index.php?topic=86

[Pete930]

Cheers for that Kyle, sadly does not advise where the side marker lights patch into the feed for the taillights.

Had another look this morning with my test box that powers up all lights etc and of course the side markers are now working again.

Not a huge deal, I'll guess I'll come across the issue when doing other work on the Tvan down the road.

Pete

[Phil G]

Pete,
Being LED they might not be turning on because the voltage they are receiving is low.  Might be caused by other things hooked up to the parking light circuit.  Do you have extra lights such as bullbar, rear bar and are your Tvan taillights LED?

[Pete930]

Hi Phil, no nothing additional has been added to the taillight circuit.

As you say LED can be voltage sensitive, however ALL the lights are LED, so with the low voltage theory I would expect to see all the tail lights either inoperative or all dim.

It's a strange one for sure.

[Frankrhona]

Hi Pete,
I hope you have solved this by now. If not I'm not sure I can help as I have a MkII, but assume it could be similar.

1. Is it just your clearance lights or tail lights as well? If so the problem is more than likely at the 7 pin plug (pin 7, brown wire). Check wire is connected and pin clean and open gap a little on the end. Note pin 7 is physically the 6th pin from the left or 2nd from the right, or next to the green wire, depending on which way you look at it.

2. If not the trailer wiring is completely separate to the house wiring. Both run inside the dr-side drawbar. At the end of the drawbar the first branch goes to the brakes.
Then the main trailer wiring loom continues up through the floor at the front dr-side storage locker and continues up to the front dr-side corner of the bed. It then travels back along the bed and up to the dr-side side light. It is either in this leg or at the dr-side side light that the trailer loom branches again and this is where the problem is likely to be!.

From here one branch continues back along the bed (under an aluminium cover strip) to the dr-side rear tail lights. The other branch goes around the top of the bed (under the mattress) to the passenger side side light and on to the tail lights on the same side.

I would be looking for a bad connection at the dr-side side light or where it branches between the side light and where comes up through the bed floor. You need to remove both the vertical cover strip (front support for the side pockets) and the horizontal cover strip running the length of the bed against the wall.
Note it may not be the +ve (brown wire), it may be a bad earth (white wire), (Track do not (usually) earth to the chassis).

As a last resort and you find you have good connections pull all the tail and side light globes out and check for low resistance in the circuit. It is possible, but unlikely, you have a short to ground that pulls the voltage low enough for the lights to not work, but not blow the fuse. If the problem is intermittent check where the wiring flexes the most: Where it connects to the car and the rear deck hinge points.

Cheers Andrew.

[Pete930]

All good Andrew thanks for that.

Problem still exists but im over it, I'll come across the faulty connection from the tail lights to where it branches off to both side marker lights somewhere when I'm doing another repair I'm sure.

The issue is intermittent and only affects both side marker lights.

I can use my test box and can have the side markers work then not work when everything else is fine.

We will get to the bottom of it one day I'm sure.

Thanks for your time and input

Pete

[Longrocky]

Hi Pete,

One thing that is interesting is that the side marker lights are on the same trailer circuit as the rear park lights. So, It might be prudent to check if those are working otherwise you have no rear trailer lights on at all.  I have myself traced this circuit and the side maker wires are from the loom running down each side of the bed (most likely not broken) there is a high possibility that the problem is on the wires each side of the drop down floor that go to the tail lights, they are bent every time you drop the floor other than that it will be the trailer plug.

Ken

[Pete930]

Gday Ken,

I think it's been mentioned at least 3 times in the above comments that the rest of the tail lights work fine, it's just the side markers are intermittent.

Yes aware of the flex sections causing problems, also mentioned in the above comments.

We used to have a fair few issues at that flex point when I was working at the Track Trailer dealer in Adelaide a few years ago.

Don't see why they would patch in at the flex section point and then feed it back into the Tvan, would not make any sense at all.

The issue will be where both side marker lights feed off of the main tail light feed, that ii suspect will be somewhere behind the main power box of the MK III which at this stage I'm nit going to worry to pull all that apart.