Reverse Lights / Tail Lights Electrical Puzzle
07-10-2010, 11:58 AM
#1
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Reverse Lights / Tail Lights Electrical Puzzle
1969 Coupe, 4spd, No AC, 350
My headlights, signals (all around), brake and dash lights work as they are supposed to.
BUT my tail lights are not working. Also my Passenger side reverse light was not working. Driver side reverse works and is bright.
I went for the reverse light first thinking it was a blown bulb, but when I moved the bulb around, it lit up (Dim) along with the rest of the tail lights and signals!(Dim) This happened with the Lights in the OFF position. When I pulled the Lights on, everything went out - including the reverse lamps.
Where do I start?
My headlights, signals (all around), brake and dash lights work as they are supposed to.
BUT my tail lights are not working. Also my Passenger side reverse light was not working. Driver side reverse works and is bright.
I went for the reverse light first thinking it was a blown bulb, but when I moved the bulb around, it lit up (Dim) along with the rest of the tail lights and signals!(Dim) This happened with the Lights in the OFF position. When I pulled the Lights on, everything went out - including the reverse lamps.
Where do I start?
07-12-2010, 12:26 AM
#6
Sounds like a bad ground...I had the same thing happen to me. Of course I was too lazy to fix the reverse switch so in the mean time "until I got around to it" I took the reverse bulbs out so they weren't stuck on...who needs reverse lights anyways! 
07-12-2010, 10:29 AM
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Shorts burn fuses and wires. Intermittent connections make things work intermitently, like yours.
The tail lights, brake and backup lights get a lot of abuse. The bulbs get their ground thru the outer sleeve part of the light socket, so it myst be clean and more or less shiny to get a good connection to the bulb. The sockets are in turn grounded by a wire (black) in the tail light harness over to a ground point on the frame, drivers side by the muffler, the radio antenna also gets grounded at the same screw. It gets corroded so take it off and maybe replace the ground lgs, solder them on the wire and use heat shrink. This will help prevent water from creeping up the wire inside the insulation. Also look over the ground wire connection on the sockets, they get bad too sometimes.
The tail lights, brake and backup lights get a lot of abuse. The bulbs get their ground thru the outer sleeve part of the light socket, so it myst be clean and more or less shiny to get a good connection to the bulb. The sockets are in turn grounded by a wire (black) in the tail light harness over to a ground point on the frame, drivers side by the muffler, the radio antenna also gets grounded at the same screw. It gets corroded so take it off and maybe replace the ground lgs, solder them on the wire and use heat shrink. This will help prevent water from creeping up the wire inside the insulation. Also look over the ground wire connection on the sockets, they get bad too sometimes.
