Whelen Edge alley light problem

[Fighting17th]

Did a quick search of the forum and found nothing. I’m working on a Whelen Edge for a local police department and this is the first Edge I’ve worked on so I don’t know much about them and have a question. The problem is that the other day both alley lights stopped working. Everything else works perfectly. This was right after one of the officers took the bar apart to change some burnt out strobes.


So I tore the whole lightbar apart and the whole console apart to try to find the problem. Step 1, I checked all of the fuses, both the mini fuses on the control board inside the bar, and the fuses on the switchbox, all were good. Then I checked all the connectors inside the bar, and everything was connected, and no wires had fallen out of the connectors. Then I tested the alley light bulbs with a battery jump pack, and they are still good. Then I switched one of the alley light wires with the takedown wires on the switchbox, and that switch turned the takedowns on no problem, so I know the switchbox and switches are good. Then I applied power to one of the alley light wires with the jump pack (and grounded the ground to the chassis) and the alley light didn’t turn on.


So this leads me to believe that almost 99.9% sure the problem is in the bar, not anything else in the car. Since both alley lights don’t work, and both are on separate wires, and everything else on the bar works, the chances are slim to none that the lightbar cable got pinched or cut and just happened to affect only BOTH alleys, plus that would probably blow a fuse, so I’m fairly certain that the problem is in the control board.


My question is, is there anything I’m missing or anything else that could be causing the problem? Or is it most likely a bad control board inside the bar?


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, John

 

[emtanderson51]

9M?? If so it's the board or the main harness that plugs into the board. On the 9M the alley wires are solid yellow and solid white. Check them at the plug as they can get pinched when replacing strobe and halogen heads over the board. If nothing is pinched there he may have burned out the alley circuit on the board itself.

 

[Fighting17th]

9M?? If so it's the board or the main harness that plugs into the board. On the 9M the alley wires are solid yellow and solid white. Check them at the plug as they can get pinched when replacing strobe and halogen heads over the board. If nothing is pinched there he may have burned out the alley circuit on the board itself.

As I'm new to Edge's, I'm not sure if its a 9M or not, I didn't see that written anywhere, but I do have a few pictures if that would help. And yes, the alley light wires that go from the board to the wiring harness are yellow and white for the alleys. I checked the wires pretty good and didn't see any pinches or damage at all. I also checked to make sure the wires weren't falling loose from the main connector. I even pressed them in a little with I think a screwdriver to make sure they were secure, and they were. I might double check the wiring one more time, but if that's the case and it is the alley circuit, possible and/or easy to replace the circuit, or probably easier just to replace the board?


Thanks for your help Steve!

 

[ChargerLighting]

If it is a 9M, it will have black plastic standoffs / filler plates, etc, that snap into each other. & the alley lights will mount to the inside of the endcap rather than on the end of the frame (9000 alley is frame mounted).


Probably not likely, but I wonder if maybe the alleys got plugged into another set of wires thats' not used inside the bar? (Example: if the bar doesn't have front flashers, there's still a harness for one...did they plug into that).


Sounds like you did this already with the takedowns, but, if you haven't; run your own harness straight off the alley positions on the board- bypassing the harness in the bar- & see what happens. If they work then, it's a wiring problem.


I would guess it's something wrong in the board if you've tried the above. Can't say I've run into a bad I/O board myself, however it IS possible that may be the problem.


If it does turn out the board is partially bad, you might be able to plug the alleys in elsewhere as a temporary fix. I'm guessing "more" of the board will fail down the road??

 

[Fighting17th]

If it is a 9M, it will have black plastic standoffs / filler plates, etc, that snap into each other. & the alley lights will mount to the inside of the endcap rather than on the end of the frame (9000 alley is frame mounted).

Probably not likely, but I wonder if maybe the alleys got plugged into another set of wires thats' not used inside the bar? (Example: if the bar doesn't have front flashers, there's still a harness for one...did they plug into that).


Sounds like you did this already with the takedowns, but, if you haven't; run your own harness straight off the alley positions on the board- bypassing the harness in the bar- & see what happens. If they work then, it's a wiring problem.


I would guess it's something wrong in the board if you've tried the above. Can't say I've run into a bad I/O board myself, however it IS possible that may be the problem.


If it does turn out the board is partially bad, you might be able to plug the alleys in elsewhere as a temporary fix. I'm guessing "more" of the board will fail down the road??

Hey Mike, thanks for the response also.


Yes, it's definitely a 9M then. It has the black plastic standoffs (which were a PITA to reinstall the modules until I got the trick lol) and the alleys built into the endcaps. I really doubt the alley lights got plugged into something wrong, because from the sounds of it, the officer just simply unplugged one at a time and plugged them right back in, so I don't THINK he mixed up any wires. Not to mention that everything else works perfectly, say for example he plugged them into the strobe tubes on accident, not only would the alleys not work, but the constant power from the switchbox would probably blow the strobes too, but they work perfectly (even if they didn't blow the strobe tubes, they wouldn't have power either way). But what I do think is that if it's not just a coincidence, that he bumped the board or hit it while prying something, etc. and is afraid to admit it haha (which I don't know why because he is the chief, even though that dept doesn't technically have a chief, he's the "officer-in-charge", basically chief of police). But anyways, I really don't want to "engineer" it to work. The department doesn't have a lot of money, but they probably have enough to spend lets say somewhere between $25-75 depending on what I can find a good used board for, and I'd much rather fix it the right way, now that I'm their main installation technician, rather than have them contact me in a few months complaining that the lightbar I worked on a few months ago stopped working and that it's my fault. One random officer already casually insinuated that I was the cause of an earlier electrical problem (which I know for a fact I was not), and I have never opened up a single lightbar of theirs before, so I also know for a fact that I had nothing to do with this problem (I've only added gun locks and rear deck strobes to the car in question).


On a side note, this car was wired by a dumba**. There is a main power wire coming back to the console (unfused) from the battery which is wire nutted to every single wire that controls everything on the car (lights, siren, radio, etc.) (Supposedly done by an alternator shop that has since went out of business ((no sh*t))) And their newer Crown Vic is wired by the same person, the exact same way. I told them that this summer I would rewire both vehicles for them, adding breaker switches, fuse blocks, and junction blocks, and eliminating all of the wire nuts, and cleaning up and looming all of the wires. I also want them to convert to 3-position slider switches rather than having to hit 3 toggle switches every time they want to turn all of the lights on :duh: I haven't had a chance to work on their 2010 "undercover" Tahoe yet, but it has a interior bar to the front and the rear, nothing else!! Nothing to the sides, no grille lights, etc. I'm also trying to talk them into letting me add more lighting to the grille and sides of it, especially since, even though it's unmarked, it has a huge push bumper, spot lights, and full reflective graphics package.....

 

[twodogs603]

If I remember right the alleys and takedown lights on the 9M bar show 12v all the time. They are activated by a ground signal from the I/O board. So with the switches off, you should show 12v going to the lights. When you ground the ground wire they should illuminate.