Community Forums

Romeo · 08-20-2017, 07:57 PM

Frustrated... Does anyone know EXACTLY what Spartan's definition of "Marker Lights" is?

I'm trying to find why I have no tail and backup lights. I have turn, stop, and emergency flashers. I'm trying to, initially, find a fuse for tail lights but wiring diagrams do not appear to label them as tail lights. I do see reference to "marker lights", so I would like to see a list or what lights are considered "marker lights". This would help with color codes of the wiring and wire numbers to search for.

Would like to find problem soon since I will be out of commission for a while with heart surgery.

I am working on a 2000 Dutch Star.

rgvtexan · 08-20-2017, 10:20 PM

IMHO Markers are the ICC (5 across the front and back) parking lights, tail lights and side lights.

Romeo · 08-20-2017, 10:37 PM

That has been my suspicion also, but not sure if Spartan electrical diags follow that.

Cruzer · 08-21-2017, 02:02 PM

Typically, marker lights are just the 5 top clearance lights on the front cap and the 5 on the rear and do not include parking or tail lamps, which are fused separately.

Darrel · 08-28-2017, 10:25 AM

My unit has a "Bargman" box in the passenger side rear compartment. The cover snaps off and it is full of the fuses for the chassis. They are labeled and might answer your questions.

Have a nice day - Darrel

Romeo · 08-28-2017, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darrel

My unit has a "Bargman" box in the passenger side rear compartment. The cover snaps off and it is full of the fuses for the chassis. They are labeled and might answer your questions.

Have a nice day - Darrel

Thanks for the response, however, I know where all the fuses are located, and there are 4 different places on a 2000 DSDP. As stated, it's the way the fuses and relays are marked in the various locations. Apparently tail and parking lights are considered as "marker lights" and clearance lights are marked as "ICC Lights" or "Clearance Lights. I still haven't found a definitive statement to that effect.

Gasman 2 · 09-03-2017, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romeo

Thanks for the response, however, I know where all the fuses are located, and there are 4 different places on a 2000 DSDP. As stated, it's the way the fuses and relays are marked in the various locations. Apparently tail and parking lights are considered as "marker lights" and clearance lights are marked as "ICC Lights" or "Clearance Lights. I still haven't found a definitive statement to that effect.

Have you considered you may have lost the ground for these lights rather than fuse? They most likely share a common ground.

Chevy396 · 10-06-2017, 02:54 PM

Romeo have you had any luck with this problem? I'll be checking mine tomorrow as I've got the same issue mines a 98 though.

girlydogs · 10-06-2017, 06:37 PM

Being a retired truck driver here the scoop. The top front &rear red lights are clearance lights, yellow lights on top or bottom sides are marker lights. most marker lights run off the tail light circuit.

Ben

Romeo · 10-06-2017, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gasman 2

Have you considered you may have lost the ground for these lights rather than fuse? They most likely share a common ground.

For some reason I missed this post: I have a direct short somewhere that is blowing the fuses that I have in the top surface of my dash. And that fuse is in the circuit for both the yellow and red lights on the upper edge of the roof.

No solution yet, several versions on Marker and Clearance Lights. Whatever they are considered, I am trying to associate the non-working lights with the terminology found on the Spartan drawings.

LETMGROW · 10-06-2017, 08:45 PM

It's amazing what some stuffed shirt engineer can decide to call something. There is no industry standard. Wiring diagrams are also difficult to obtain so you can follow the path from a given lamp to the fuse protecting the circuit. The marker lamps might be referred to as "running lamps" Only the guy who designed the label for the fuse box knows for sure.
I remember the first time I looked into a fuse box and found a fuse for the CHMSL. It took a couple minutes to decipher this one before I realized they were describing the 'Center High Mounted Stop Lamp' AKA 3rd. brake lamp.
If I was really in doubt which fuse did what I would turn the tail lamp switch on and probe every fuse I could find hoping to find one which was hot on one side but not the other indicating the fuse was blown.
Lynn

Gasman 2 · 10-06-2017, 09:07 PM

Ron, so you have found the fuse but now you are looking for the short?
In your first post you said you had no tail or backup lights.

I guess I'm confused. What are you calling "backup lights"?

Romeo · 10-06-2017, 10:14 PM

Ok, I did confuse the subject in my last previous post. For the last year I have had no running and clearance lights. It's not too much of a problem since I dont drive past sundown anymore. That is one problem, but was not the subject of this thread/post (I kind of forgot since I was generally working on them at the same time).

While trouble shooting the clearance light short, I found that my back-up, white lights and my tail lights (on with headlights) were not working. That was a recent problem and not associated with the clearance light short circuit. I know the problems are not connected since I had tail and backup lights on the last trip when we did our pre-trip light check.

My problem with the backup tail light situation is the markings on the fuses are confusing as I mentioned. So I went through and checked every fuse for dc voltage on each side of each fuse and didnt find any blown fuses... all fuses showed continuity. Maybe a solenoid, but that's where the markings come in... none of the ones with clearly understandable markings appear to be bad by way of substitution. So that leaves bad ground or bad solenoid if I can find the correct circuit. All known grounds are secure, and jumping from light bulb socket to ground doesn't indicate a ground problem.

Heart surgery done and pretty well recup'd, so back to lighting problems as soon as I can work again.

Gasman 2 · 10-07-2017, 12:47 PM

If you have not already call Spartan. Call Spartan with your vin number and ask for the wiring schematics for your coach.
When trouble shooting an electrical issue make sure your test light or meter has known/good ground.
I have found it difficult at times to find a good ground point with these fiberglass bodies.