67 seeker

Have a strange one. The right rear brake light only does not work. Tail light works, signal works. Checked continuity from wires to spring connector assembly in the tail light housing. Continuity when they are depressed. I did notice that one of the small plastic tabs that holds the spring wire assembly at the rear of the tail light assembly was broken off. Thinking perhaps when the bulb is pushed in that connector moves not allowing the small contact to compress enough. But the tail light works. Can't check it removed as I would have no reference to ground. All I see is a new harness assembly and cannot locate the spring contact assembly only. Any ideas? And the bulb is ok

5thvet

Jump your brake light switch and see if they work. Might be the switch since your directional signals work.

65GGvert

If the other brake light works, your brake light switch is good.
If your turn signal works on the bad side, your wires, bulb, socket and ground are good. (the signal and brake use the same filament in the bulb)

What your problem will be, is inside the turn signal switch. There's a set of contacts that interrupt the brake light and insert the flasher voltage when the signal is turned on. That's the ONLY difference in the brake voltage and the turn signal voltage. Here's a picture of the inside of the turn signal. The two contacts near the center are the ones that interrupt the brake voltage. If they didn't, every time you put on the brake, you'd override the turn signal flash since they are the same bulb, wire, filament, and ground. Trust me.

5thvet

Read that too fast, thought both brake lights were out! Listen to 65GGVert!

Hitch

The tail lights will still light if they are out of the car with no ground.... I keep an old rear harness and old set of tail lights for trouble shooting cars. I lay them right on the ground next to the drivers side door and hook up to car harness and functionally check the system....


Hitch

65GGvert

The lights won't light with no ground, but you may mean no ground at the rear. On a C2, the ground for the rear lights passes through the rear body connector and grounds behind the dash. There is no ground connection at the rear. All the socket cases are connected to each other, along with the license plate light housing, and then grounded up front as I said.
To the OP, your problem is not a ground anyway. Please read my earlier post, it's the only place your problem can be if you described the symptoms accurately.

Hitch

Yeah I meant at the rear as I've seen a lot of posts on here about adding a ground to the rear tail lights to get them to work. When in most cases it's either the connection at the rear harness / main harness or the turn signal switch.... Hope you've been well been a few years....

Hitch

65GGvert

Thanks, doing fine. Retiring next month.

67 seeker

Awesome 65GGvert. I will check that out. Thanks.

65GGvert

Turn the key off, step on the brake and wiggle the turn signal switch. See if the brake light flickers or comes on. That will confirm a bad connection inside the turn signal. It may be broken and not flicker, but give it a try.

67 seeker

Will do. But the LH brake light works?

65GGvert

I know, we're working on the right one. The LH will come on and stay on when you press the brake and the turn signal in either the center or to the right. The right one (you said) doesn't work. We're checking to see if the right one flickers or comes on when you turn the turn signal to the right and back with the key OFF. When it's working correctly, both brake lights will work with the key off and the pedal pressed, AND the turn signal in the middle position. Again with the key OFF, only the side you turn the turn signal to should be off. The other side should be on. The contacts inside the turn signal switch are interrupting the brake light voltage (as they should) and allowing the voltage from the flasher to replace it. With the key off, the turn signal won't flash, but the brake light will go out.
All were trying to do here is see if the BAD brake light flashes off and on when you wiggle turn signal to that side. As I said before, it may not, because the contact may be completely broken or bent. Either way, the problem you have is inside the turn signal switch.

67 seeker

Ok but the LH brake light works?

65GGvert

That's what I said. If you don't trust me, maybe someone will come along here you can work with.

67 seeker

You really misread that. I thanked you for your input.

65GGvert

You posted twice, OK but the LH brake light works.

Without explaining why I want you to do this, I'd like you to have someone sit in the car, DO NOT turn on the key. Have them step on the brake. If everything was working properly, both brake lights would come on. You said your right side brake light wasn't working. If that's still true, have that person wiggle the turn signal between right turn and center a few times while you watch the right side brake light. Post back here what happens.

Either way, you have a problem inside your turn signal, I'm trying to determine if it's just loose or dirty and maybe can be cleaned and tightened. Take a look again at the picture I posted of what the inside contacts look like. They just touch against each other or posts depending on what is happening. If your right side brake light contact is not touching, you won't get a right brake light, but when you turn it to right turn signal, it touches a different place and works. To surely fix the problem you will need to replace the turn signal switch.

67 seeker

I did what you said and after several times moving th signal it worked so I will replace the entire switch assembly. Thanks again.

65GGvert

No problem. It may work for a long time if you got the surface corrosion off the contact.

67 seeker

Is the contact accessible to clean?