8 volt to tower light-help?

[Speedling]

I'm normally good at this stuff but I think I brain farted here rushing things.
I wired up the tower light by using a T connector on the positive and negative on the "pole" light wires. The pole light works fine but the tower light won't. I want the availability of factory pole so I didn't just cut and splice. I don't want to just cut one wire and wire tower inline because then the pole light won't work. But now the pole light works fine and the wires going to tower (not in tower yet, just the wire leading to it) reads 8 volts.
What am I looking for here?

 

[RiverRat]

What are you reading at the pole light? Maybe the negative connection isn’t good?

 

[Speedling]

What are you reading at the pole light? Maybe the negative connection isn’t good?

Will check that next. Also going to run wire straight to battery to make sure light works even though getting to the bottom of the 8 volts is probably the underlying issue

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

It sounds like you’ve wired it in series and are reading voltage after that first light

 

[Speedling]

It sounds like you’ve wired it in series and are reading voltage after that first light

That's my initial thought, but I know that's what I was looking for in there. But now I'm wondering what I tied all my led cup holders into!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Well run a shooo fly wire and check voltages and operation like you intend and that will shed some light on things.

 

[Speedling]

I pulled the wiring out to its basics. See where I tie in the wiring to oem light? 12 volt reading currently (lol electrical joke)
But other end is still reading 8.6 volts. Dug out a lot of corrosion and now I am wondering how pinched it might be as it's fished through engine bay. Must not be enough to pop a fuse but is enough to lower voltage? Frustrating. Volts read without pole in at the moment as well. I hate electrical gremlins. It's gonna be a pinch or something stupid

 

[Speedling]

Had camper battery on charger in garage so pulled that out and ran power straight to leads going up and into tower. No light. Reversed polarity to confirm as well (have had that with led stuff)so next up is pulling light off to see if light or wires. I guess worst case I am running the pole light but iirc the tower is required to have one working.

 

[Speedling]

Well this is part of the problem! Took light off and tried pulling slack through and it wouldn't budge. Was pinched! I hate this tower design in regards to wiring. But speakers are getting fresh marine wire now too!

 

[Speedling]

Gonna just run new wires from pole light as well. Might even look at changing how the speaker wires come back out of the tower because it's the same hole as the bolt for cross member and it's all pinch points. Such bad design on aerials part honestly. Bimini top is awesome and I would put it on any tower it would fit though.

 

[Speedling]

Other than the smashed wires in the tower I found a very corroded bit where the t splices are onto original pole light. Redone all with tinned wire, heat shrinked etc and seems to be working! Didn't finish bolting tower back together because I plan on doing some speaker wiring and ran out of wire a bit. Hopefully nothing smashes anymore!
Glad I found actual issues but now I wonder if water has been dripping in from pole light base.