Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

[Steve D.]

63 Convertible

License plate light has single male connection for power and the ground is secured to the light assembly; correct? With wires (and alligator clips) directly from the battery, positive clipped to the wire lead, negative clipped to the corner of the assembly (where the harness ground would be secured), but no light. Ground clip is to bright, clean metal.
Background: when I first tested the light in this manner, it was successful. Afterwards, I taped the light socket and sprayed on a thin coat of paint. The next test did not work. There was no paint in or on the socket. I stripped off the paint. With a dremmel tool, I cleaned the socket to bright metal (inside and out) and also cleaned the corner for the ground to bright metal. If I apply the ground directly to the base of the bulb or the socket, the bulb will light, but not with the ground to the corner of the assembly.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

If I remember correctly the bulb socket is swaged to the assembly. You probably have a high resistance at that point. Try cleaning up that location. You may have some paint or corrosion causing the problem.

[Steve D.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Steve

You're right. it's swaged. I used an icepick to clean the bottom of the socket as much as I could. I may try placing a drop of solder to improve the connection.

[Matthew G.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Steve (or anyone else for this matter),
I'm having the same issue exactly that you had. If I touch the black ground wire to the bulb or socket, it lights up. Anything else (including the corner screw that it normally grounds to) and no light. For what it's worth, my multimeter is telling me it's getting 10.5 volts at this site. Do I need to aggressively clean the housing on the back? Any other solutions?

[Stephen L.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Matthew, you have corrosion between the lite socket and the housing that the socket is swaged to. You need to get rid of the corrosion. If it is too far gone you may need a new assembly (socket and housing). This is a typical problem for lites that have been subjected to the elements over the years....

[Steve D.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Mathew

It's been a while, but I think that I ran piece of copper wire from the grounding screw to the socket.

Steve

[Matthew G.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Mathew

It's been a while, but I think that I ran piece of copper wire from the grounding screw to the socket.

Steve

Steve, I was thinking of that. Drill a TINY hole above the visible socket and run it up and through?

[Steve D.]

Re: Grounding the license plate light shouldn't be that hard

Mathew

That sound right. No one will ever know (except maybe the next owner_50 years from now), so do what ever it takes to get a good ground.

Steve