Question: Electrical issues - lights non functional

[homepagez]

What was working is no longer after the jeep had been sitting in my garage for a year. I'm thinking I have a serious ground issue (note that I have a fiberglass body on the '81 CJ7).

When I turn on the headlights - not only do they not work - but the directionals both come on solid. When I turn on the directionals (lights off) they come on but that directional stays on solid (not blinking).

The dashboard back-lighting is working And I can adjust the brightness without a problem.

Also working are the tail lights when the lights on on. If I apply brake - they work as expected.

Any thoughts? How do I go about debugging a possible ground issue?

Thanks,

-John

[LEVE]

First, and you already pointed it out, make sure you've got adquate grounds.

Then work on ONE symptom and fix it... so you don't create 5 more problems chasing several problems.

Were it I, I'd concentrate on the headlights.

Follow the voltage feed out from the headlght switch to the hi/low beam switch and to the headlights themselves. Where is the voltage lost?

[Jim_Lou]

Good advice.

Or turn the headlights on and touch your meter probes to the ground post on the battery and to the metal headlight bucket or ground wire at the plug. If it reads other than zero (or real close - a couple hundredths of a volt) the bulb needs to be grounded.

[mbalbritton]

I don't recall if it messed with my diretionals, but you may take a look at the High beam switch on the floor. I had that one go out on me and I lost my headlights.

[homepagez]

Thanks everyone. I followed the help of the postings and I got it worked out!

The ground to the bulb had come off. That threw everything off it seems.

Thanks again.

-John