Mysterious VK Electrical Gremlins...

[fazz1977]

I've been doing a fair bit of work on my girlfriend's VK EFI, and I've been getting some bizarre electrical issues. Most of them I've been able to work out but one keeps stumping me completely...

The inside brake light on the right hand side WILL NOT WORK... not matter what. I've tested all the brake circuits with the multimeter and the strange thing is, they all say that when the pedal is pressed that the light only get 0.5v. This is clearly wrong. I even tried buying another globe socket and slaving the wires off a brake light that I know works... still nothing, it keeps reading 0.5v over every brake light circuit.

Normally I wouldn't stress too much, but the cops being as anal-retentive about RWC these days, it's just the kind of thing that an officer who's had a bad day could pull her up on and slap another ugly canary-yellow sticker on her windscreen for.

If anyone else has had similar issues (and I'm guessing someone has as almost every 2nd VK I see has a brake light out), and has been able to resole it, let me know your thoughts.

Thanks guys!

[vkberlina]

I have had a stuffed brake light switch cause problems affecting all my brake lights before, First thing I would check is voltage at the taillight wiring harness socket. I have a witing diagram on my site for it.
Secondly VKs have problems with taillight wiring mostly due to damaged wiring when stuff is thrown into the boot. So just make sure it not damaged.

Finally in your testing Test 12+ on the brake light circuit to body earth not the wiring harness earth, VKs have alot of earthing problems it wouldnt surprise me if its a bad earth causing your greif.


cheers
scott

[CommodoreChick]

Scott, Scott, Scott... Is there anything you can't fix?
Don't worry, i'll get you one day with something you don't know... VKGod

[fazz1977]

Cheers mate. I did test them all with a body earth (where her amp earths which works fine) and yeah, kept getting .5v. Even from the brake light fuse to the -battery terminal, .5v... it's bizzare. The globe socket isn't damaged as I've replaced the whole thing with a new one... it's starting to give me the poos.

I'll keep at it, thanks!