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I was changing the sparkplugs a 72 I just recently picked up and accidentally hit the thing circled in red in the attached picture with my ratchet. When I did it shot sparks and then I realized I probably shorted something out. Well now I have no taillights / turn signals in the rear and my gauge lights dont work. All the lights up front are fine. The fuses don't look blown but I have not pulled them out yet to test. (that's next)
Can someone tell me what this thing is so I know what I hit as I start tracking down what happened?
This is on the driver side of the engine bay directly infront of the brake master cylinder and behind the alternator.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by ThatHazardousGuy; May 10, 2021 at 02:08 PM.
The only thing that's affected right now that I can tell is the running lights in the rear.
I checked all of the fuses under the dash and they're fine.
I'm gonna check grounds for the rear lights.
Brake lights and turn signals are really dim in the back. When I have the headlights on and use the turn signals they're really slow flashing. I know that to be a current issue.
Thanks guys for throwing info out.
Last edited by ThatHazardousGuy; May 10, 2021 at 09:12 PM.
I have started a new thread for what I believe to be the underlying problem here. I have identified a few wires above my driver side muffler that appear damaged or not grounded/plugged in... I'm trying to identify them, now. I wonder if I damaged these while installing a new gas tank over the weekend.
Like peterbilt advised it will be a fusible link. If you look at the picture you posted the blk/wh wire is a fusible link. It is a wire with rubber on it like that. It is simply a gauge wire with one 4 times smaller in the rubber. When excess current flows it burns the smaller wire. Sometimes you can see it burnt out and sometimes you have to check on eacj side of the wire with test light
Troubleshooting Taillights
