deejaydu

My 67 tail lights are not working. I have brake lights and turn signals that are all working correctly but no tail lights. I checked the dash light switch and it appears to be working correctly except for the tail lights. Any help would be appreciated.

Jay

Railroadman

It's been said on here that the tail lights are prone to grounding issues. Do the tail lights ground separately from the turn/brake part? My suggestion would be to take a length of wire and create a separate ground you KNOW is good and see if that helps, and go from there.

65 Pro Vette

I can’t believe it would be a grounding problem if the turn signals and brake lights are working. The tail light circuit is by itself and feeds the license plate lights also. I would start at the body harness connector under the dash that feeds the rear lights. Take a test light onto the connector from the main harness I believe 67 it’s the brown wire make sure you have power there, if you don’t have power there that will eliminate the whole rear harness. Check the fuse, and the headlight switch.

65GGvert

If the license plate light is out too, check for voltage on both the CLIPS that hold the fuse in. Don't just look at the fuse, measure. If the voltage is there, but no license plate light, check the brown wire in the rear body connector under the dash. If that fuse is bad, it will also kill dash lights. Post back and we'll go further.
You don't have a ground issue. Remember that both bulbs tail filaments could be out, Also if you replaced the bulbs recently, the contacts on the new bulbs may not be touching the ones in the socket.

deejaydu

Yes the license plate light is also out. I forgot to mention that. The fuse is good. It supplies both the brake and tail lights. This problem has just developed as it has always worked properly. I will start checking the brown wire. and the fuse holder. Thanks for the suggestions.

Jay

65GGvert

The fuse does NOT supply both the brake and tail lights. The bottom fuse feeds the brakes and courtesy lights. The tail lights is a separate fuse (second from bottom). You need to trust me on this and measure the voltage on the tail light fuse on the clips on both ends. Not the brake light fuse. As I said earlier, if your tail light fuse is blown you won't get dash lights either.

Frankie the Fink

If 65GGvert gives you electrical troubleshooting advice, you can take it to the bank.

deejaydu

I do have dash lights. I will check both ends of the clip and report back.

Thanks

65GGvert

I'd like to help, but I feel like you're not reading everything. No use checking the fuse if you have dash lights. The problem you have, if you have described the symptoms accurately, is lost continuity of the brown wire between the headlight switch and the brown wire at the rear of the car. The only connection is at the rear body connector above the driver's side kick panel. Either the brown wire is not fully seated into the headlight switch connector (very possible), a bad connection in that rear body connector, or a broken wire between the two points. First thing I'd do is check the brown wire going into the headlight switch. Pull the park lights on and measure on the wire for 12v. If you have it there, measure on the rear body connector for 12v on the brown wire going in and out. If you have it there, you have a broken wire between that connector and the rear of the car. Both tail lights and the license plate light get their voltage on that single brown wire. It goes to the license plate light and splits off into the two tail lights. If you do have dash lights, the problem is narrowed down to a very small possibility of locations, starting with the headlight switch. It may not be switching the 12v to the brown wire. Please note there are TWO brown wires on the headlight switch. One from the tail light fuse supplying voltage and one out to the rear body connector to light the tail lights. One will have voltage all the time, the other only when you pull on the headlights or park lights. If you short those two brown wires together and you have tail lights, the switch is not working.
Summary, start with looking at the headlight switch connector and the rear body connector to make sure all the wires are pushed in the connectors firmly. I have seen on more than one occasion where a wire was pushed out of the headlight connector.

leif.anderson93

Absolutely, 100%

deejaydu

Thank you very much for this very helpful information. I currently have the switch out because I thought that might be the problem from the very beginning. The only thing that I have not looked at yet is the connector behind the kick panel. Do I need to remove the kick panel or is it up higher. I will check out the connector and report back. I will disregard the fuse readings since I do have dash lights. Is there a way to test the switch out of the car? Thanks again very much for your help and expertise.

Jay

65GGvert

It's above the kick panel. You can read continuity between the two lugs where brown wires on the switch go, or you can read my last post and check it the way I said there. Put the connector back on the switch, pull to the park position and read for 12 volts on both brown wires. If you've only got it on one, switch is bad. (If the wire's plugged in correctly). if you got it on both and no tail lights then move on to the rear body connector.

deejaydu

Ok this is how I will proceed and report back. Thanks again.

Jay

deejaydu

I was able to confirm that the brown wire at the rear connector block was not loose and also the connection at the switch is good. I was not sure how to jumper out the brown wire to check to see if the switch was good so I will have to figure that out then check the switch. If the switch is good then like 65GGvert say's it has to be a break in the brown wire somewhere.I think that the switch is good because when I pull the parking lights on the fronts come on along with the dash lights. When I pull the headlights on they come on along with the dash lights.That all seems normal. I will keep working until I find the problem. This just came out of nowhere as they have been working perfectly for years.

Jay

65GGvert

I've gone as far as I can go if you're not going to use a volt meter.

65GGvert

Or, in this case a test light would work.

deejaydu

I will be checking with both but I only had time to check for loose connections yesterday. I will report back with the results.

Thanks to all who have pointed me in the right direction.

Jay

65GGvert

Any progress?

deejaydu

I am just heading out to work on it now. My internet is going to be down starting tomorrow until next week. If I do not report back this evening I will report back next week when my internet is restored.

Thanks for checking in.

Jay

65GGvert

It's not possible to live that long without internet.