Help! Hooking up license plate lights wiring

[Porsche_Euro]

I have a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo that came with the license plate light wiring not attached. Does anyone have a picture of the license plate light wiring all hooked up that I could see how it goes? It has to be quite simple, but the ends of my female spade connectors don't seem to find a home to go anywhere.

Thanks for your help.

[thekidd]

Do you have the wires backwards? I don't have a late model, but in my '84, the wiring comes out by the sunroof motor on the drivers side. The tail lights, side markers, and license plate lights are all grouped together.

[Porsche_Euro]

Here's a couple pictures of the inside of the hatch with the wires and license plate lights. The one spade connector is too small to fit into the male connector on top of the license plate holder. Weird.

[Grandad#3]

A PO might have installed the wrong size spade connector and just left it. Hold the wire on the connector and see if the light comes on. If it does all you have to do is install the correct size connector. What is the bare wire touching the jack used for?

Cheers,
Larry

[Porsche_Euro]

I was wrong in that the other small blade will plug into one of the blades on the top of the license plate holder, but that still does not turn on the light.

The bare wire lost its blade and, I'm guessing, would plug into the other license plate holder on the left.

[djnolan]

Check for voltage with a Volt meter, and if not check your fuses.

[Porsche_Euro]

Djnolan, is this the right way the wires are supposed to be hooked up, though? According to the picture up above, just plug in the loose spade connector into the top of the license plate holder?

[tamathumper]

With that bare wire jangling around, it has probably blown the fuse.

[Porsche_Euro]

I checked my fuses and there isn't a license plate light marked in the fuse box in the engine bay of the car. I wonder which random fuse it is. I'll just check them all, I guess.

[Porsche_Euro]

All fuses are fine. The bulb looks fine, also, but maybe its defective.

[Pops944]

The brown wire is the ground wire and is on the correct terminal. The bare wire is the +12 volt wire and needs to be lugged and installed on the light or insulated. First, I'd check for the 12 volts between the two leads when the light switch is on. If you have the proper voltage, the next step would be to check the socket with a known good bulb. If the light still doesn't come on, the socket would be suspect. The oxidize pretty quickly if they aren't used.

[tamathumper]

BTW, those old bullet light bulbs can look fine (filament appears intact) and still not work.

[Porsche_Euro]

Thanks for everyone's help on this. I made it much, MUCH harder than needed be. Tamathumper, you were absolutely right in mentioning the bulbs might be bad. They looked PERFECT to me, but then I replaced them and WALLA! both lights worked after I redid the other blade connector.

[TrailRider]

Can you upload a picture of what the wiring looks like now for reference? Thanks!

[Porsche_Euro]

Hi Trailrider. I thought the wiring was more intricate than it turned out to be. Brown wire is ground that connects on the bottom of the license plate light housing and green hot wire with small blade connector connects up top.

[Porsche_Euro]