I recently purchased a used license plate bracket (with lights) for the summer tailgate of my '78 40. I'm a little unsure with regard to setting up the wiring. There is an existing green whire coming from the lamp assembly on each lamp. I'm just wondering where the ground wire is supposed to attach??? I'm not very good with electrical stuff so if anyone has a simple answer to this question, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
'78 FJ40 license plate lamp question...
- Thread starter uncommonstock
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Ground passes through the bracket, the tailgate, the tub and finally to the frame. It's problematic to be sure. Get a multimeter. You might end up having to run a ground wire to a bolt near where the roll bar bolts down.
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Where does the ground attach to on the license plate bracket...do I just attach it to the hot wire and then ground to the frame as you mentioned? I've got the ground on the frame down...but where do I run the ground to the other two wires that run to each lamp? Right now, there is only one wire coming from each lamp. Thanks
bsevans
Focus on the Journey
You would attach a ground wire to one of the mounting screws that attach the light assembly to the license plate frame. You may need to do this to both light assemblies. When I powder coated the license plate frame I lost the ground link to the frame and door. Adding a ground wire to both light assemblies cured the problem. The ground normally goes thru the plate frame to the door where it is grounded with a gound wire in the harness that attaches on my 40 to the passenger side ambulance door which grounds the door to the frame. The new ground wires have terminals and use the same ground screw that the ground wire inside the door uses.
I may be saying the same thing as previous postings. But my harness inside the 40 had a dedicated ground wire for EACH lamp. I lengthened each ground wire, passed them back out through the door, and attached each one to two of the three bolts that attach the license plate assy to the rear of the amby door.
Hmm, mine only has one wire from each lamp, for power. As bsevans said, it grounds through the mount. I had to ground my door to my harness using a screw that's on the inside of the door. For some reason I wasn't getting a good ground through the body.
Oh man. After powder coating my rear license plate frame bracket, the metal is so well insulated that it does not ground anymore!
Mine was grounded in the housing as it came out of the box. One power wire soldered up and it was done. 1978. This definitely beats paying $150 for a factory plate holder! This one was $8 on ebay.
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