Club 80-90 Forums

Excuse me for asking a maybe obvious question..

My trailer plugs are due for renewal, I am working through the system,
as (oddly enough!) the trailer lights often exhibit a bad earth characteristic.

So when I looked behind my RH rear light to see where the trailer wiring connects,
shock horror its all ancient blue snap lock connectors, the worst kind..

And worse than that theres a whole bunch of green wires, clumped together,
that end in a terminal that looks like it should bolt to something, but isnt.

Shall I bolt them to something?!!!
Just checking... green is earth right?

I feel like disconnecting it all, brightening up the copper bits and putting new connections on.

brown is earth on the vw side, god knows how the trailer wiring has been done as it's not factory, normal trailer plug wiring is white pin 3 for earth

Well this really is a can of worms, not all green.
Two trailer sockets on mine under the rear right hand light.
One has been connected to all the right wires but possibly not in the right way.
(what would be the right way? Will someone tell me?)
Someone used those blue snaplock connectors that just cut into the wires and lock closed.
None of the connections look too healthy, and there are lots of connections.
First wires I played with to try to change the connector at least, broke not even at the connector,
and I didnt have time or resources to do a proper job so I replaced a couple of lengths of wire,
and checked it was all working again and retired to think it through.

I like that on one of my Ifor Williams it has a big waterproof connector box,
inside is a lot of spade connectors on bus bars, each row labeled for each light and colour.
So given my wiring has been butchered already, why not fit something like that, and connect everything to it.

On the bright side I saw that my light units are ULO's so I could do with Cov Kids LED panel conversion,
it does seem appealing, my back lights are very dim indeed.

Anyhow I will be considering options and thinking how to wire it all,
suggestions welcomed.

(All the green wires are to the other socket and seem to offer a 12v power outlet,
positive and negative are all green and I will just remove that one for now.)
I do have a fat 12v cable from the leisure battery to the rear for an Anderson connector.
And the beauty of having a big busbar connector block is I will be able to connect different trailer sockets to it.