Should the nav light pole and base be grounded?

[Zberry1985]

Trying to get my nav lights to work on old boat I bought. If I touch a ground wire to the pole and positive to either connection hole the lights work. Problem is theres nothing to ground the pole in the base, should there be? Same thing front and back light.

If someone could take a picture down their base I'd appreciate it

 

[nccatfisher]

They have a ground wire run to them in the fixture. The base is never grounded as in a chassis ground.

 

[Zberry1985]

Another possibility is it could be the wrong bulb. Anyone know the bulb number for these?

I assumed one pin would be ground and the other positive but it didnt work. I knew the outside of the bulb connection is usually ground for trailer lights so I thought it might be the same here.

 

[LDUBS]

Huh, I'm not an expert, but I would expect the base mount to have a negative (black wire) pigtail.

 

[Zberry1985]

Looks like it was due to wrong bulb... #90 did the trick