stepside backup light ground

[70 shorty]

I posted in the electrical section, but haven't gotten any responses. My newly installed stock repro back up light doesn't work, but when I ran a jumper to the mounting stud from the negative on the battery, it worked perfect. So, my question is, where is the light supposed to get its ground from? The mounting studs themselves? I just went out and scraped paint from the bracket where the nuts tighten on the studs, and no joy. Any ideas?

[Keith Seymore]

My 80 stepside had star washers on the bracket bolts, for the specific purpose of breaking the paint and providing the ground path.


Naturally - everything rusted and after I repaired all the paint it quit working.

I ended up running a specific ground wire from the socket through the harness to the frame rail and never worried about it again.

K

[70 shorty]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

My 80 stepside had star washers on the bracket bolts, for the specific purpose of breaking the paint and providing the ground path.


Naturally - everything rusted and after I repaired all the paint it quit working.

I ended up running a specific ground wire from the socket through the harness to the frame rail and never worried about it again.

K

Yeah, I've considered something like that too. The weird thing is, I actually replaced both backup lights and one works fine, and the the other doesn't. They are not exactly the same though as I've had one in the box for over 10 years and the other I got this past Christmas. I guess I should have a close look at the working one to see what exactly is different in the mounting of it than the other.

[Coalkracker]

If it's just a ground your looking for then you can pretty much put it anywhere metal. Just be sure to clean any rust or paint off so you have a good connection.