Hi Jeff,

Mine is also located on the Z-bar as shown in th photo below.

 

 

If under my dash looked like your I guess I wouldn't be having these problems!! Looks like out of the showroom.

 

I believe John is correct on the stop lamps and the taillights being on separate circuits. Yesterday when I told you that they were both on the same circuit I was reading Don Olson's wiring diagram. The 65 Assembly Manual Wiring Diagram show the circuits separate as John stated above. Sorry for the confusion. I will get in touch with Don about the discrepancy.

Follow Geek's procedure.

Whether the wires a connected or not should have no affect on the taillights whatsoever. The brake light switch is a normally open switch so there would be no difference if the wires are connected or not as long as the brake pedal is not depressed. That is a plastic switch so there is no ground provided. It's just a switch in the positive wire.
Did you try jumpering the wires from the brake light switch to see if the brake lights will illuminate?

 

I did jump the brake light switch wires but to no avail. I guess I can try again. I had my wife looking when I was jumping and it was in broad daylight. After jumping I did hood the meter up to the connections switched to ohms and it spiked to zero. Now finding out again that the circuit for the brake lights is the same as the courtesy lights etc, I am more depressed because I know there is a problem there. I thought this morning that perhaps a new brake light switch would solve that.
Looks like I start all over!!

 

Now that I think about it I tried jumping the brake light switch but the #6 fuse was blown and I was thinking that the #5 fuse was the circuit for the brake lights. I'll try again.

 

I diconnected the battery and installed the 20A fuse in #6. It did not blow. I disconnected the brake light switch and jumped the connection but still no brake lights.

 

Okay, today I put in a fuse #6 jumped the brake lights switch, no brake lights.
Disconnected the rear body connector and blew a fuse, same with the connector at base of steering column, and same with both disconnected. While working under the dash I noticed a black and white wire coming out of a harness by the front light relay red wires. I will attach picture of the wire. That wire goes nowhere and is bare at the end. Also under the hood to the left of the master cylinder ( looking at the firewall) there is a black switch mounted on the firewall which has a wire going into a top connection and another wire that looks like it is broken off. There is a black wire coming out of the firewall in this area and it looks mysteriously light it should be connected to the top of this switch. Pictures of that also attached.
Finally there is a braided connection at the base of the air cleaner breather tube that is cut on one end and goes nowhere, picture attached.
Can any of these be the reason for my electrical problems??? I'm about at wits end.
Just realized I don't know how to attach pics. Can't you add them from your computer. When I try to add an image above it's looking for a URL.

 

That black and white wire sounds like the wire that allows you to turn on your courtesy lights when you rotate the light switch **** just past full bright. The courtesy light sockets should have a black and orange wire and a black and white wire going to them. The black wire to the left of the master cylinder? No clue there. Mine has no wires to the left of the cylinder other than the ballast resistor and they are black with purple stripe.

Use the search engine and look up posting pictures. There have been some really good guys giving great instructions on how to do that. Think those pictures will be worth a thousand words when we see them.

Gary

 

Gary,
Almost sound like last owner went to a lot of trouble to disconnect the courtesy lights (ie. no bulb in any of the three and now that wire that would turn them on). I've owned this baby for 4 years but never take it out at night so probably never cared about the courtesy lights. I will check the seach engine for posting photos again but before I tried that and it didn't really give my help. I do have pictures of all the wires that are in question , so when I figure out how to post them I will. Thanks for replying today.
Don

 

Send them to me and i will post them or go here http://www.tinypic.com/

 

Don,

Check out these instructions for posting pictures:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...t=picture+post

 

I did a formum search and will try to send pics in this message. We'll see if they go through otherwise I'll send to Piper who generously offered to help.




The first is the braided wire in the engine compartment behind the intake manifold. It is cut and conntect nowhere.
The second and third are some kind of switch on the firewall to the left of the master cylinder with a wire broken on top.
The third is the wire that Gary identified without a pic as the wire that controls the courtesy lights from the light switch.

 

Picture 1 - braided wire - That's a ground strap. The other end normally connects to the side of the throttle lever. On my 65, one end goes under the rear most intake manifold bolt, the other end to the throttle lever.

Picture 2 - That's the ballast resistor that normally is required for your ignition system. Does your car still have points under the distributor or does it have a fancy electronic module?

 

Dave,
You've got a good eye. how critical is the braided ground in pic one to any problems I am now having? I am assuming not too. I.
I will go out and pull the distributor cap and check on the photo 2 question and get back to you.
Don

 

The braided strap shouldn't have anything to do with the problems you are encountering. I believe about all that strap is for is to help eliminate engine noise from the radio.

Jeff

 

Dave,
Just pulled the distributor cap and it looks like a points, condenser and rotor without unscrewing the rotor. What does an electronic module look like?
Don

 

In the picture of the ballast resistor you can see the black with purple stripe wire but there is that wire just sitting there next to it that I don't know what it is. It's not the right color code I don't think for the wire going to the coil. In theory there are only two wires to the ballast resistor: one from the ignition switch and one direct to the positive side of the coil. If one of those were broke the car shouldn't run unless it has a modified ignition that bypasses the ballast resistor. But it raises the question if they needed power for a mod in that section of the car, and they wanted non-switched power (as found on fuse 6) why would they go back in side the car? The freaking battery is only a couple feet away. The power on the ballast resistor is switched so that doesn't make sense.

Black and white wire is a possibility and the only wire I can see that is black and white in the area of the is the one that turns the courtesy lights on with the light switch. Is the light switch rotated so that they are on? (think it's fully CW till you feel it click in) However the truth is that with the bulbs pulled, it shouldn't make a bit of difference unless the socket itself has a short in it.

To recap this real quick - with the bulbs to the courtesy lights out, the glove compartment bulb out, the stop light switch disconneted, the rear body connector and the steering column connector disconnected - all of that disconnected at the same time - the fuse still blows. Only thing I can think of to try would be to pull the fuse out, leave everything disconnected, and use your meter to read each of the light sockets and the clock connector from the side with the black with orange stripe wire to ground and see if there is a short in one of those. Just for fun you can read the black with white stripe wire side of the courtesy light sockets and see if the ground turns on and off when you push the door jamb switch (off when you push the switch and on when you let it go)

One other important question - are you drinking beer or bourbon as you work this problem?

Good luck. Will try and follow along while on the road this week.

Gary

 

 

Thanks for all the follow up and time given to this problem. I will again
play around with it tomorrow and post the results. At the beginning of this thread there was no beer or bourbon involved ( sorry for not reviewing my spelling on some posts) but it is getting close now!!! I may have better luck. Have a safe trip on the road.
Don