Hamish Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 Forgive this numpty question. But I really don’t get electrics. i am fitting a steel hardtop to my old TR3a. It is held on to the car by 5 rear metal thumb screws clamping the painted brackets. That screw into metal bracket bolted to the car body. There are also 3 bolts clamping the painted hardtop to the windscreen which is in turn bolted to the body. I am fitting 2 interior lights with simple on off switches over to door apertures of the hardtop. I am taking the live feed from the rear light (my thinking is that I’ll only need interior light in the dark when I’ll have at least sidelights on) the lights have an earth lead and also appear to earth via a mounting screw. i am also going to fit a high level brake light in the hardtop rear screen. Again the live feed is from the live feed from the cars rear brake light. i will be fitting a male / female plug arrangement to connect the live feeds between the car and the hardtop. ( interior lights live combined and the brake light feed thus 2 pin) my question is can each light be earthed locally to the hardtop ? do I need an earth bridge between car and hardtop so a 3 pin plug. Or are the bolts between car and hardtop enough if I remove some paint on the brackets ? so I just have the 2 lives in a 2 pin plug ? hope you can understand my thought process. H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeTRacted Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 Hamish - technically the right thing to do (in my opinion that is) is to fit a three-pin plug so that you have a proper earth connection, and to run an earth wire to each lamp. Relying on the fixing bolts alone for earths would probably work fine while everything is clean and new but why not do things properly while you can ? It might save having to strip the headlining later to fix a bad connection. A three-pin plug isn't much bigger than a two-pin one after all. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 Can't fault the logic of the above...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 Thanks guys. Is it an option to earth each fitting to the hardtop at the fitting. Then to fit an earth to the hardtop close to the plug to go into the plug and bridge the hardtop to car? thus one live wire to each lamp and a short connection from hardtop to plug. With the receiving plug with the 2 separate lives and one earth to car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeTRacted Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 Yes that is an option and yes it will work - but what are you saving by doing it? A couple of feet of wire? You have to weigh that against whether the lamp fixings will be easily get-attable to remedy any failure to earth which might happen in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 Cheers guys hope to get to this in a week or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Hamish, the works cars had their wiring re worked by Lucas. All earths went to one very obvious terminal bolt. If you call in later in the week I will show you. Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 1 hour ago, Iain said: Hamish, the works cars had their wiring re worked by Lucas. All earths went to one very obvious terminal bolt. If you call in later in the week I will show you. Iain thanks Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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