alternate ceiling light for when wiring is shorted

[jimmerheck]

Hi all, first post here. 1987 Fleetwood Tioga class C 24 footer is current rig. Have had motorhomes for over 20Y. Have a small dilemma. Got to camp spot, no rear ceiling lights. Blown fuse. Through trouble shooting, found the wiring that goes up the wall and over the ceiling to my one ceiling light, one light only, has shorted wiring that is built into the ceiling and wall layers. The other light wiring is good. Its only the one light above the bed that we hardly ever use. Bad wiring wont pull out and looks impossible to get a new power and ground light through the ceiling layers, its all sandwiched together. Has anyone else had this problem? Dont want to do it half ass and run a pair of wires along the ceiling, want them to be hidden. Its in a very noticeable spot. I'm thinking I can either buy a battery powered LED light and mount it up there replacing the original 12v light, or run new wiring under some kind of moulding that would be clean and wouldnt really be noticeable. What does anyone think that has seen this before? Thanks!

[CA_Traveler]

Like you I don't want any wires showing inside including wiring channels.

Another option is to run a wire on the roof. No one will see it.

[jimmerheck]

thanks all for your input.

[enblethen]

Here is a way to fix it. Reverse the two wires. Mark the grounded green wire Black, and the white wire as red for positive. You must reverse at both ends and identify at both ends. Put a small tag on wire as to what you have done.
The grounded wire now becomes negative and the good wire as positive.

[ron_dittmer]

jimmerheck wrote:
and yes, I cut the wires off of that light circuit and the green power wire is still shorted, its not the light fixture. The green power wire is shorted to ground.

Just make sure the green wire is not supposed to be your ground wire. In a regular house, the white wire is always ground, but in vehicles white is often a power wire.

[azrving]

That sounds more like what they would do. So you separated the green wires and checked them individually?

[enblethen]

I am still thinking it goes some where else before fixture!

[jimmerheck]

I should have said for the 12v hot wires coming off of that rear light circuit, there are 3 green wires coming off the hot post from the converter, that head out and split 3 different directions. One of the green legs goes to the bathroom light and fan, one of the green legs goes to reading lights and a rear compartment light, and the third green wire, the one shorted to ground goes to the light above the bed.

[jimmerheck]

nope, green is hot 12v and white is ground on this rig.

[Mich_F]

I've not seen a green wire used for anything other than a ground. Here is a two year old video that has a number for Fleetwood customer service. Supposedly they have (or did have) info on all their products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGS-WU9y-1o

[jimmerheck]

thanks all for your input. I know the short is in an unaccessible place, I have isolated it to the wiring passing through the sandwiched ceiling structure. I have disconnected all of that circuits output wiring from the converter and physically followed it from the converter all the way to the ceiling area. There is an access hole in a cabinet where it passes into the ceiling. The wiring can not be pulled out in either direction, they are stuck in the ceiling, its only a 4' run, but they are stuck and wont budge in either direction. And I've tried to see if I can fish a wire through, but the ceiling sandwiched structure is filled with foam, so no go. So its battery powered led light fixture or run a wire on the ceiling and cover it with a trim piece. Thanks all for your input.

[DrewE]

The wires in the ceiling obviously have another end somewhere. Can you find that other end and pull it from there? It may be possible to put a string on the wire, pull it from the end, and then pull a new wire in with the string. It may also be pinched or stapled or otherwise secured such that this would not work.

I'd also look for any junctions, etc. between the ceiling fixture and the fuse panel; there's a reasonable chance the problem is at a connection somewhere and not in the middle of a buried wire.

[azrving]

You said it runs over to the wall. Can you see where it goes from there? Does it go underneath or behind a cabinet? If you can get into the wires over at a cabinet or something and cut the wires there you may be able to see if the fault is before or after that point. Just say the positive wire is pinched in the bedroom ceiling area, if your light is mounted by any metal frame work you may be able to ground the light there and use the negative wire as the hot by moving it down to the positive where you cut into it.

I know you said there's nothing else on the circuit but did you follow that green wire which you say is positive all the way back to the fuse in the panel? I'm not saying it can't be but it seems like there would be more on that circuit than just one light in the bedroom. I say that because it's just so common in an RV that they try to run a whole bunch of stuff not single things because they're cheap.

Now let's say that you find after cutting into the wires down there that the problem is for word of there. I would then go in to the Power Center and see if you can identify those wires. Just say you found a green and white in their sheeting and you assume them to run back to the light. Now you could remove the ground right there and you have the light disconnected so as long as that wire isn't feeding anything else you would have Tsum there should be no ground so you should be able to check that wire for continuity to the frame if there is none you could make that wire positive and send it back to the light by passing the pinched green wire that is forward of your cut.

I'm speaking on my phone to put this in here so I hope it's not confusing

[1995brave]

jimmerheck wrote:
and yes, I cut the wires off of that light circuit and the green power wire is still shorted, its not the light fixture. The green power wire is shorted to ground. This is not meant to be a trouble shooting post, I know its shorted, its to ask others how they have replaced a light with something as an alternative. Thanks for that though.

What is the make and model of your RV? I know that Winnebago uses green for ground on their units. Are you testing it at the fuse that blows or at the light?

[77rollalong]

you maybe able to remove one of the strips and separate the roof a bit and fish new wires throught that way back to the closet or other power source, ie roof vent with fan