I recently rewired from front to back with lectric limited harnesses. I didn't get any smoke or fire when I plugged it up to the battery or started the car! This is my first rewire, so I was worried about that and had my fire extinguisher ready. I do have a couple of electrical gremlins and was hoping for any time saving advice with the issues.

The car has aftermarket LED tail lights. When I pull the light switch, only the inner most two lights come on. The outer lights do not come on at all. Do you think this could be a polarity issue when I plugged the pigtails into the sockets on the lights? seems odd it is only the inner tail lights that illuminate.

My hazard lights do not flash. The only LED bulbs are the taillights. I'm using standard bulbs everywhere else. They illuminate, but will not flash. I thought the problem was the need for a heavy duty flasher. I purchased one yesterday and installed it. It did not affect the flashers. The lights come on solid. After I changed out the hazard flasher, my blinkers stopped working. I wouldn't think those things are related since there is a separate flasher for the blinkers. Any ideas or how to get the flashers or blinkers working?

My door ajar light in the cabin is on all the time, weather or not the door is shut. I haven't pulled the plungers to see if there is an issue with the connection. What is the best way to test to find where the problem is? I have manually depressed each of them, but the light does not go off.

My parking brake light won't come on. I have not pulled the pbrake console yet to check the connection. When I installed the wiring it appeared that it was making good contact. I don't have a pressure sensor by my master cylinder and the wire for the connection is not connected to anything. Would that cause the Pbrake light not to come on?

I have a late 68 with the wiper override light on the gauge bezel. THe light does not come on when I change the switch to override. I remember that the light only had a single black wire running to it. I installed a repro 68 overide switch I purchased from willcox. I don't think the switch is the problem, as it appears to be drawing current while in overide. The ground from the harness was grounded to the wiper overide switch housing. any ideas on how to track down the issue?

 

Hi K,
Lot's of questions from you!

Are you certain that the ground connection at each rear lamp housing has been made and also that the rear lighting harness itself is proper grounded?

When you pull the headlamp switch to the first detent the 2 outer tail lamps should illuminate.
When you pull the switch all the way out the outer pair should remain illuminated.

When you depress the brake pedal all 4 lamps should illuminate and be brighter than the the tail lamps.

Regards,
Alan

What did you use as a guide for putting the Rear Lighting Harness in place?

 

Thanks Alan. I figured I would throw it all out there and see what came back.

I used the diagram letric limited provided. The car had a painless harness before so there wasn't much to go off of when I did the new install. I felt like it was pretty straight forward. If I remember correctly, I grounded the tail lights to the housing. There was also I wire that was grounded to the frame. The rear harness was a real pain to install, no room to work at all.

 

I'm not getting any illumination on the two outer lights. Could I have reversed polarity by plugging in the pigtail wrong?

 

Lots of problems. Work at one at a time. Try putting regular bulbs instead of LED and see what happens. It is better to change things after you get original working. The park lights should be wired together so use a test light and your schematic to follow the voltage . Are grounds good? LED's usually require different flasher relay as you can find on forum lots of info. The courtesy lights are hot all the time and the ground comes from the front pin switches on doors. You have a constant ground on your light so follow it back or pull the pin switch out of drivers side and see if it breaks the circuit or is shorted.

 

Lots of questions. The door ajar is also controlled by the headlight switch. Make sure it isnt rotated all the way to the stop after the the brightest setting on the dimmer. the switches at the door connect the bulbs to ground when the door is open so you could remove the switches and disconnect the ground at each one to see if that turns the light s out. The headlight switch also needs a separate ground which is a metal strap , if that isnt hooked up it does cause weird problems.

The tailights could be a ground issue as well. Polarity shouldn't be a problem because the bulbs should only go in 1 way unless they were forced in. You can see if the pigtail will go in 180*.
IF both the flasher and the turn signal were not working then you would have a problem with 2 different systems or its at the rear lights themselves. Since one system works and the other doesnt then it could be the grounds at the switch themselves. I would put regular bulbs in and see if the problem persists. The flashers themselves could be bad. You can switch them since they should be identical.

When the rear is working are both of the front working?

The center gauge light issues you have can be a ground problem as well. I ran 2 grounds from the gauge bezel/ wiper bezel to insure I had good grounds there. Also check power at the sockets using the test light and at the switches, the wire at the booster would not be a problem. You should get a good year specific wiring diagram so you can trace the wires, it will help with alot of your tracing power problems if you know were it is coming from and which fuse supplies it.

 

Other than me looking into this due to i have no wiring diagrams here at my house....I would suggest contacting Willcox and see if Ernie can possibly send you a link to a troubleshooting guide he may already have written up on this.

DUB

 

Thanks all,

I was able to get the brake brake light working this morning. The tab on the assembly was pushed in and not making contact.

Before my wiper override light would come on. Once I fixed the parking brake issue it came on and now won't go off, lol. That is my luck.

The courtesy lights are working now too. I do have a bad switch that is causing the issue. I had to pull the switch contact out for them to come on.

I pulled both plungers for the door ajar warning. It looks like they are making contact fine. Not sure why the warning light won't go off.

I worked on the tail lights as well this morning. I checked the ground for the rear harness and it appears to be grounded well. The outer lights didn't have individual grounds so maybe the are grounded through harness ground?

I user my multimeter and I am getting 12v at the pigtail for both the inner and outer tail lights. I connected a standard bulb and it lit well. The led lights do light up but they are extremely dim. They were working fine before the rewire.

 

Your taillight housings MUST be grounded to make the lights work correctly ...because if you do not have a good ground...the circuit will find a ground through the element of the CORRECT type of light bulb.

I still would advise you putting in the correct bulbs to get the system to work correctly....then deal with the LED's.

DUB

 

Thanks dub, I'll put standard bulbs in for testing. The PO installed the led lights. I don't have non led tail lights covers so I need to go led route.

I discovered that I had the bulbs for the wiper override and the door ajar lights switched. So I never really had a problem with my door ajar lights. Wish I could get that time back, lol.

I do still have a problem with my wiper override lights staying on. It does not go off wether or not
The switch is in override mode. The I've seen some posts on that so I'll check them

I really do appreciate all the help. This is all new to me.

 

I did have a ground issue with my tail lights. I called letric limited this morning and The rear harness diagram they provide had a mistake. It showed the grounds for the outer tail light cases going to the back up lights. Once I moved them to the housing everything worked great.

 

Glad oyu got that fixed.

As for your light for your wipers...I will try to remember to look at it tomorrow and get back with you.

Have you tried to contact Willcox and see if Ernie has any link to possible diagnostic chart he has made up already???

DUB

 

I'm going to email him in the morning. Thanks for the help.