I’ve had a small fog light on the front of my roadster forever. I got it years ago at the Lone Star Roundup swap. I think it originally came from Speedway. Tonight I decided to make it functional. Admittedly I’m not a whiz at wiring, but I did wire the car using an American Autowire kit and everything worked, so I figured this fog light would be easy. When I got it apart there was only 1 wire hooked to a terminal on the back of the light. I thought there would have been 2 wires (power & ground). What gives here and how do I wire this thing? I want to control this light with a toggle switch separate from the main lighting circuit?
Not a problem....the white wire is your hot lead, going to one side of your switch. The other side of your switch will be the power source. The light itself is the ground, (or the second wire in effect), that you are used to working with. Just make sure that it has a good grounding to whatever you mount it to. Bob
. I'd say the bulb grounds to the housing, housing grounds to the car so only 1 wire needed for the hot. .
Since I base/cleared my frame and didn't want to make a mess of that I simply ran ground leads from the mounting bolts inside the light assemblies, routed through the conduit with the power wire and grounded the lights on a ground bus. I don't like ground issues.
As mentioned, it's a self grounding unit, but as @TrailerTrashToo says, the most reliable method is to include a dedicated ground wire.
Make Sure it is a switched power source (turns off with the key ) So you don't accidently leave it on and kill your Battery .
I just recently got a pair of 5 1/2” Fogs. Will gently blast the rusty area. And put a good heavy ground grommet under attachment bolt . Stretch
Whata think about bouncing that wire up to 14 gauge? I hardly ever use 16 gauge on automotive stuff…..just seems too small. Maybe that’s just me! Bones
The wire is a hot wire. The metal case grounds to the frame when the light is installed. be sure that the mount makes good contact when the light is installed and run a hot wire to the light and you are golden.
Thanks guys! I love it when a plan works. I’ll wire it in to an empty accessory terminal on the fuse block and put a toggle switch in the circuit when I pull the engine later this month. The light draws less than 3 amps so shouldn’t need a relay as long as it’s the only thing on the circuit. Thanks again for the input.
I never depend on housings as a ground. Too many screwed, clamped, or bolted connections that can go bad. So as Trailer Trash pointed out, I want the ground wire separate, and as close to the socket as possible to eliminate all other poor ground sources.