Wiring help

I changed out some negative cables/lugs today, cut off the factory battery lug, the one that goes 2 cable, one to battery and one to chassis ground, and cleaned stuff up generally. Everything works fine, except the 12v outlets I ran to the back of the center console aren't working. They have power from the aux fuse panel (if I connect a tester to battery and stick it in the outlets they turn on, blue light-power) but I have them grounded to a bolt next to the shifter. It worked fine before I changed things, and cannot figure out why it's not getting a solid ground now. Any ideas?

 

Current situation

 

And before I fucked with it

 

What kind of tester are you using?

What Battery Terminal are you connecting to ( + or - )?

I Understand that you are using a test lamp (blue). And when you touch the center electrode in the 12 VDC Socket and ground the lamp tester lead the light comes on. If so you need to connect the ground lead of the sockets to a satisfactory ground location or locate where the ground wire has failed.

12 VDC Source >> Fuse >> 12 VDC Outlet >> Ground connection.

If you know you have 12 volts at the outlet, then it should be pretty simple to follow the ground wire and find where it is loosing the connection.

Do you have a Multimeter to read continuity from the ground of the outlet to the chassis ground? It should read near zero Ohms.

Is everything else working?

 

I don't have a multimeter. I'll have to remove the console tomorrow to find the ground, and see whats going on there. I just find it odd it worked before, and I have other chassis grounded things that work fine, but for some reason these do not.

Just a light up tester, connecting to ground on the battery and center electrode of 12v socket

 

It should be easy to locate.

 

It could be the bolt next to the shifter goes into something plastic, meaning not a metal ground.

 

Definitely ground. It worked for a week. Then last night didn't. Also didn't this morning. Removed it and tested for ground, everything good. Put it back in the SAME EXACT SPOT and now it works fine again. I am clueless

 

Maybe you need to clean that attachment point.

 

If there's power going to the 12V outlets, it could be the actual outlet. Maybe something is loose going into it.

 

Checked those too, everything looked fine. I'm going to mark this as a win for now, and keep an eye on it. If it happens again then at least I can not attribute it to me messing with the battery first