left rear taillight off

[dab1950]

Team,

Checks are complete.
1. Ground connections are good.
2. left turn and brake lights work.
3. left side tail light circuit still does not work.
4. I've applied 12v to the green wire at the left side tail light
socket and the marker lights above come on but not the right
side lights. Conclusion; left side tail circuit is isolated from the
right side circuit.

The hole in the skin is about 1/2 in in diameter. The wire bundle
will not slide out. If I pull on the bundle or on individual wires,
they stop abruptly and very quickly. The splice must be very close
to the hole but is hitting a hard edge and won't budge. I'm afraid
to pull any harder for fear of disconnecting permanently.
Even debated cutting the hole larger.
I've sent a note to the Trailmanor plant service department, requesting
advice.

P.S. There are 4 wires in the bundle coming through the skin; yellow to
the backup light, white for ground, brown for brake&turn, green for tail.

No night driving until I get this resolved.

Doug

[commodor47]

Doug,

There may be access to those wires from the back wall of the inside shell. The center ceiling strip is a channel for wires in my unit. The horizontal channels along the back wall may also be wire channels. You should be able to carefully pry off the channel cover strip to see if there are wires present. The other option is to carefully remove the white cove-style corner strip (where the edge of the ceiling and the top of the wall meet). That could be another location for wire runs.

Dick

[dab1950]

Thanks Dick for the excellent advice. I'll check it out.
FWIW, I have not heard from TM factory Service Department as yet.
Sorry I haven't responded sooner, I'm on vacation and catching up on
chores around the house.
For some reason, I'm not getting 'immediate' email notification of updates
to this thread? I'll check into that as well.

[gonzo628]

I just spoke with Sonja (at TM) today. She said the email I was waiting for follow-up on was 4th on her list... You might try calling them again?

[commodor47]

dab1950,

I remembered seeing a post that showed the wire runs for the inner shell - and I found it: http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...re+runs&page=2 See post #12

The poster mentions using caution when nailing the cover strip back onto the run. Earlier TMs used staples or staple-like fixtures to attach molding/molding covers. My unit has snap-on cover strips for the wire channels.

Dick

[dab1950]

Thank you Dick for the update and especially thanking Bob(retiredgoat)
for the pictures!
That's exactly the practical knowledge I needed.
I hope my wire channels have snap on covers too(2006, hopefully).

Doug

[Shane826]

I can't stand those scotch-lock connectors. They cause nothing but problems in cars. I don't hunt them down in my TM but any time I come across them they are immediately replaced with either heat shrink butt connectors or soldered an heat shrink wrapped.

[dab1950]

Sorry to take so long to update this thread. But I finally, finally got the
tail lights working again today. Since my last update, I have not had a lot
of time to devote to this troubleshooting project. I still work for a living
and spring clean up/fix up on the house took priority.
It took 4 attempts to isolate the problems. And I swear the symptoms
were changing on me. But the final analysis is as suspected, the 'tap-splice'
connectors were the culprits. Likely on both the green(power) line and the
white(ground) line. All total, I replaced at least a dozen of the 'tap-splice'
connectors. The last one replaced, that ultimately fixed it, was on the
white ground line coming from the right side(curb side) to the left side(street side).
Which led me to believe the main connections went to the right side light
fixture first then crossed over to the left side. This is exactly opposite to
how I assumed the rear shell was wired.
I think the factory may have used the wrong size tap-splice connectors.
I opted for the next size smaller(22-18) which made for very tight connections.
The only challenges I have facing me now are the 'snap fit covers' on the
interior channels and proper caulking the outside fixture for weather
proofing.
Thanks to everyone offering advice and encouragement.
It's time to go camping now!