Help, why is my electrical doing this?

[llajumpvid]

Sorry in advance if this post gets long....I have had my dvd/nav switcher in for almost a year with no problems. I took the nav switcher out (to get reverse camera option added) last weekend and spliced together the R, G, B, and Sync wires and then grounded the ground to my dvd wiring which is tied to the cig lighter in the center console. That returned my nav to factory and my dvd/overhead monitor worked fine.....until tonight....

Now before I explain whats wrong I unhooked my negative battery cable last night to reset the ECM in hopes of the elusive gas mileage boost some have stated they have gotten. I doubt that has anything to do with the problem but wanted to state the only thing that I did between it working and not working.

Now on the way home tonight the dvd and monitor would not power on. I looked at the fuses they were good but I think one of the connectors had came loose but when I put it back together it still didn't work. I took a tester light and grounded it on a bolt under the passenger seat and when I touched the ground wires I have tied together the tester lit up???? It was dim but it still lit up. When I touched the power wires and the same bolt it was much brighter. As I played some more I unhooked the wire that was tied to the nav monitor ground and tested it, it did not light the tester. Touched the ground that I unhooked it from and it lit up? I have a crimp tap on it and noticed that when I hooked the nav wire back up it didn't connect correctly so I redid the connection and now the dvd and monitor work???

So here is the question why am I getting the tester to light when I touch a ground and the bolt under the seat....I'm assuming I'm getting a good ground when I properly hooked up the ground wire from the nav and thats why the dvd/monitor came back. but before I took out the nav I had the same hookup with the exception that I grounded the nav box to the same bolt I'm hooking the tester to. If I didn't confuse everyone with the ramble can someone tell me why the ground would light up?

[Squid]

Do you have a power wire connected to the ground? Power has to be coming from somewhere. Ground the lamp somewhere else.(not the same bolt) and test again.

Touched the ground that I unhooked it from and it lit up?

[llajumpvid]

No power hooked to the ground but it must be bleeding through from somewhere. I did ground to the seat bracket as well with the same result.

[Squid]

Wish you had a meter. I hate those lights.

[calgary_redneck]

Originally Posted by Squid

Wish you had a meter. I hate those lights.

test lights are one of the best tools for finding electrical falts there is

[scr38]

The ground wires that you have tied together aren't making a good ground contact. The light is lighting dimly because the power is feeding thru some other unit that has it's ground connected with those ground wires. To test this connect a wire to this group of ground wires and then connect the other end to the seat bolt you are using for the test light ground. You won't see a light then. The solution is to run a new ground wire for this group of wires, making sure you are connected to a good body ground, and all the ground wires are connected securly to this new ground wire.

[llajumpvid]

Thanks I think you have it. I pulled the back of the console apart and the ground wire wasn't connected very good. What had me baffled was how it was picking up power.

[honeykeeper]

One advantage of a meter verses the test-light is you can measure any current flowing from each wire and will help pin-point the bleed-short-source and amount of current that is leaking. Does it leak when the unit is both off or on???? Peace-Tom Bass Ale

[llajumpvid]

It works correctly now it was the ground had come loose. Thanks I was freaking a little trying to figure how I had a "hot" ground.

[S.RayRay]

Originally Posted by calgary_redneck

test lights are one of the best tools for finding electrical falts there is

Maybe in 1970 they were?