busfran

I have the tank out of my 63 and I need to know where I can find the ground for the taillights. I keep blowing bulbs. Where can I find the ground to see if it is bad? Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Buster

62fuelie

Are you blowing both filaments in the bulb or just the tail light (low) side? If you have a bad ground, I would think you just wouldn't have a light, high or low filament.


[Modified by 62fuelie, 3:59 AM 8/21/2003]

ghostrider20

I agree, if you have a bad ground, you usually have a non power type problem, if you are blowing fuses, then look for a power lead that is grounding out.

Your issue with blowing bulbs may be in the socket itself. Is this a common problem with more then one housing? I have seen sockets that are corroded and blow bulbs.

Mark



[Modified by ghostrider20, 11:49 PM 8/20/2003]

busfran

Thanks for your comments. I think that I am blowing the complete bulb, both filaments. Also, It is happening on at least three of the four lights. I will check it out soon.

62fuelie

If you have a multimeter, check the voltage coming to the sockets. It should be about 13.7-14.2 with the engine running, less with the engine off.

REVIVER

Each light should have its own ground wire coming from the harness, they are all from the same wire but if you have one light being fed the ground and then a jumper wire from light to light to light them it is flowing thru each bulb to get to the other.

Start at the primary ground wire, should be at the drivers side, and make sure each light gets its own wire from that wire. This includes the license plate light ground wire. I just put my harness in my 67 and that is how it is wired. Hope it helps. :flag

JohnZ

Midyears don't have a ground point at the rear of the body for any of the lights or the tank sending unit; all of those items splice within the rear harness to a single black/white wire that goes forward, picks up several other grounds in another splice, and actually grounds at the instrument cluster ground spade, and at the radio ground screw that's on a pigtail coming out of the radio connector. :thumbs:

rbryce1

Actually, the rear harness is not grounded at the instrument panel and the radio connector, the rear harness and the instrument panel are ALL grounded at the single pigtail coming from the radio connection. Everything that is grounded from the firewall to the tail lights goes through that one single little wire to ground. Loose that connection, and you loose a LOT. Also, that radio connection ground, it goes to the birdcage. Not all, but most C2 Corvettes have rubber bushings where the birdcage mounts to the frame, which has the possibility of partially or fully isolating the birdcage electrically from the frame. The bird cage is electrically grounded to the frame with a single copper braided strap at the #1 body mount. Loose that strap, and again you loose everything. The C2 grounding system is a real mess.

Frankie the Fink

Great advice - uh...on a 14 year old thread.
I'm betting the owner with the problem has fixed it by now...

rbryce1

I hope so !!! But, as I am having these issues 14 years later on my 1965 project Corvette, others may also, so any info is worth posting.

Frankie the Fink

No offense, but I'll have to check my Dr Rebuild wiring diagram.

I can count the number of times I've seen JohnZ wrong on here in my 10 year membership on three fingers....

rbryce1

No offense taken, and he is not far off. by no means. The only reason I am now familiar with this is I have had an immense problem with my fuel gauge instruments and the volt meter I was installing in the instrument panel during my current restore, and traced it down to this. My Dr. Rebuild wiring diagram and the Corvette schematics is where I found the problem. There is a grounding lug on the instrument panel, but the instrument panel does not touch any other metal parts in the dash, it is isolated by the fibreglass dash panel. The steering column does connect to the instrument panel, but it has a rubber grommet between it and the column mount. Nothing was working right on my car until I connected the radio ground lug. My comment was not meant to be a disagreement with him, only more info that I found that hard way that I hope others may benefit from.

ejboyd5

Notwithstanding the date of the original inquiry it remains a valid question: What causes the lamp filament to fail? Improper grounding would result in a simple 'no light' condition. Absent age or manufacturing error of the lamp itself (highly unlikely with multiple failures), we are left with an overvoltage application as the likely cause.

rbryce1

I would tend to agree. The light going out could be an intermittent loss of ground, but a blown filament, or several blown filaments is definitely not a ground issue. I would be taking voltage readings. Could be a blown voltage regulator causing the alternator to see full field voltage and the alternator to start pumping out about 20 volts. Hope he found it, as he could waste a battery and some other things. I believe light bulbs would be the most sensitive.

By the age of the post, I do assume he found the problem, but did not post it.