I think I have a short in my wiring somewhere and I can't get a good connection to the back light on my boat. I don't really want to pull out all the wiring and figure it out sooo... Is there any way I cant just hook up the light to either my cranking battery or another battery when I want to use it?

I doubt you would have to pull out all the wiring. More than likely, the problem is going to be at the contacts for light or in the switch.

That's what I figured so I unscrewed the little connection plate and redid the wiring there but it still has a short somewhere else. Not only that, when I first disconnected it the wires don't come all the way out. I had to dig it out with a coat hanger just to reconnect it. It was a pain in the rear trying to crimp it together and then put a heat shrink tubing over it. I finished it but it still has a short somewhere. Now I really don't feel like pulling all of that wiring out and figuring out where the short is. The front light works so I assume the wiring is fine at the switch. I am also pretty sure the light is fine as well because it would flicker on and off.

have you tried another light? I had a new one start doing that and it was a loose wire in the light, they also make a spray cleaner for marine connections that cleans electrical connections and puts a protective coating on it so it wont corrode again. some marine connections can get a hazing on the connections that is hard to see that can cause connection problems. if that dont work i would get a test light and start at the light and work my way back to the switch until you find power that should show you where your connection problem is.
anyway just my 2 cents.

If you really have a short, there is probably a blown fuse or tripped breaker.

A lot of times it is just a matter of cleaning out the receptical and cleaning off the contacts on the light. They tend to get a calcium coating which is easily removed.

I'm starting to think it may just have been the receptical. I'm working on it again tonight. Hopefully I can make some progress. I finally got to pulling out the old fish finder and transducer that was in the hull. Now I can't seem to figure wout what was wrong with it in the first place. Did the same thing the light did. I would take off and at the very first bump or wave it would turn off.

If it was burning and you hit a bump and it goes off, Then
it's not a short , It;s a loose connection somewhere, as said above, If it;s a short it will be triping a breaker or blowing a fuse,

You guys were correct. It was the receptical. I ended up bending the little pins outward a bit and viola! The other night when I posted this I figured it had a bad connection underneath the receptical where the to wires were crimped together and had heat shrink tubing on it. Being an idiot I redid the connection and then all of a sudden... No lights. Not even in the front where they were working before. I then decided to just forget about it because we messed with it till 1 AM. Tonight I got back to work on it and I thought... Hmmm maybe we blew a fuse the other night. My suspicions were correct. Put a new fuse in and switched the connection at the back light (the fuse blew because I, being an idiot put the wrong wires together). Then, thanks to some help from you guys and PMs from a fellow TFFer I got it working perfectly.

I have never owned a boat before and I had no clue what I was getting myself into trying to do repairs on my dads boat. Thanks to the TFF for helping me put in a new bilge pump, fix the light, and fix my transducer/fish finder.

That's what it's all about. Keep the questions coming. You'll learn about mechanics, and electrics, along with other things by owning a boat. Hope you don't learn to not own a boat.