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I seem to remember once upon a time, somebody made a light socket
with a ground wire or a ground tab. I looked a few months ago for
my GT6, but couldn't find it at the usual vendors. I imagine you
could add a ground wire, but some of my sockets are pretty bad, so I
was looking for new ones that already had the wire.<br>
<br>
On my TR6, I did have a socket that didn't conduct well to ground.
The problem was the connection between the metal base and the metal
fingers. I just hit the area with a wire brush in the Dremel then
soldered the two bits together and it fixed that problem.<br>
<br>
Brian<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/12/2019 2:38 PM, Roger Elliott
wrote:<br>
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<p>I decided to give up on the issue. <br>
</p>
<p>There did not seem to be much of a voltage drop across the
battery - about .05 volts as near as I could make out. It's
possible that either the meter or myself were not quick enough
to read accurately.<br>
</p>
<p>As far as I could tell there is not a ground terminal on the
sockets. There was about .009 volts between the lamp housing
and the battery. I did run additional wires from the lamp
housing to a ground (to the tank mounting bolts).<br>
</p>
<p>The brake/tail lights still varied with the turn signals, in
opposition, got brighter when the turn signals were off.<br>
</p>
<p>Tested the lights with regular brake lights instead of LEDs. I
noticed the brake/tail lights still varied with the turn
signals. This is when I decided to give up and just live with
it.<br>
</p>
<p>Oh, the third brake light that I have wired in - power from the
brake lights and grounded to the body flash when ever the brake
lights and turn signals are on (like the brake/tail lights in
opposition.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>Thanks for your help.<br>
Roger<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/3/2019 4:37 PM, Randall wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Yes, that’s the idea. You want all the
lights on (including turn signals) during this test.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What you’re looking at is how much
voltage drop there is through the ground path.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-- Randall<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><b>From:
</b><a href="mailto:elliottr@rmi.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">Roger Elliott</a><br>
<b>Sent: </b>Sunday, November 3, 2019 1:26 PM<br>
<b>To: </b><a href="mailto:triumphs@autox.team.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">triumphs@autox.team.net</a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [TR] TR250 LED tail light problem</p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">HI Randall,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Thanks for the information
and the tests.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">I just want to check
something on the tests since my electrical trouble
shooting ability is very limited.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">This section is also done
with the lights on, right?: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">To
check for grounding issues, I suggest running a wire to the
negative battery terminal or negative starter cable, so you
can connect the ground lead of your DMM to that. Then you
can probe at the rear lights, to see how well they are
actually grounded. 0.2 volt is probably acceptable,
anything more than that represents a problem that could be
fixed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <br>
Thanks,<br>
Roger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 11/2/19 4:07 PM, Randall wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal">There may not be a good solution,
Roger. The incandescent turn signals draw a fair amount
of current, which is likely more than the stock alternator
can deliver (along with tail lights and so on) at idle.
So it may be that the battery voltage is dropping from 13+
volts (alternator supplying all power to car) to 12.6
volts (battery supplying some of the power) and the LEDs
you’re using are sensitive enough to show the difference
in voltage.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To check, connect a good voltmeter or
DMM to the battery, then watch what it does when the tail
lights and flashers are both on. If I’m right, you’ll see
the battery voltage sag in time with the turn signals.
The only fix would be to convert to a more modern
alternator, that can keep up with the lights at idle.
(I’m not certain, but I think there is a Lester unit that
would look and fit the same as the stock Lucas but give
more current across the board. Check with the Jaguar
folks.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another fix might be LEDs that use an
active current source (so are much less sensitive to
supply voltage), but I have no idea where to buy such
things. I made my own using a simple 2-transistor active
current limiter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To check for grounding issues, I
suggest running a wire to the negative battery terminal or
negative starter cable, so you can connect the ground lead
of your DMM to that. Then you can probe at the rear
lights, to see how well they are actually grounded. 0.2
volt is probably acceptable, anything more than that
represents a problem that could be fixed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m not sure how the TR250 tail lights
are wired. On my TR3, all the rear lamps ground only
through their mounting screws, which go into clip nuts
fastened to the sheet metal. Very insecure, especially if
the sheet metal has a fresh coat of paint. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, each lamp has a terminal
inside the housing for a ground wire. So, I made up a
ground wire that daisy-chains across all the rear lamp
holders, then leads around the trunk to one of the fuel
tank mounting bolts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-- Randall<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From: </b><a
href="mailto:elliottr@rmi.net" moz-do-not-send="true">Roger
Elliott</a><br>
<b>Sent: </b>Friday, November 1, 2019 12:50 PM<br>
<b>To: </b><a href="mailto:triumphs@autox.team.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">triumphs@autox.team.net</a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[TR] TR250 LED tail light problem<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here's the problem. When the tail
lights are on and I use the flasher, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the tail/brake lights flicker with the
flasher. They don't go on and <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">off but the get brighter and dimmer.
When the third brake light is <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">hooked up it does the same thing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;margin-left:.5in"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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