Re: Subject: basic (?) electricity

[Steve Patriquen <spatric1@maine.rr.com>]

It's very possible to have 12V without enough current to light the bulb,
due to a bad ground (most likely) or other connection. Try adding a
temporary ground. If that doesn't help, use an aternate source of 12V.


>What am I missing here?  The trunk light isn't working.  A DMM connected
>across the empty socket terminals shows 12.4 V.   But when the bulb is
>connected either in series or in parallel,

??? Aren't there only two wires? What's it in parallel with? The DMM? That
won't tell you much.


>the voltage drops to zip.  However,
>when the ground is transferred from the neg terminal to a chassis ground, the
>bulb goes on and the DMM shows 12.3 V.
>
>Can anybody explain what is happening, please?

Bad ground.

Steve