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New member here needing some help please -
Just got car (1970 C3) back from paint shop and noticed my taillights,parking and side marker lights do not work.I replaced headlight switch with two new ones already.
The 10amp fuse on bottom for instrument lights has no power with switch on or off to either side, and fuse is good.
The 20amp fuse for taillights has short and blows instantly
Brake lights,turn signals and emerg lights all work
My plan is to remove all taillight and side marker lamps and see if short then clears up ?????
Question is- where does the 10amp fuse get its power from ? Taillight fuse maybe ?
Not sure if this had anything to do with paint work or just a coincident,i think taillights were working when it came home but cant confirm for sure.
Any help or advise would be much appreciated !
Thanks
D
Did the body shop remove the fixtures as part of the work they did? I agree that is a good first start in removing the fixtures to see if they inadvertently pinched a wire
Not yet,hope to pull lights and disconnect next week and see if i can eliminate a few things for starters.If i'm lucky maybe just a bad socket hopefully.Still would like to find out if the 10a fuse for the pkg lights is fed from the 20a taillight fuse,that would help t-shooting tremendously otherwise i have two issues.
OK, these diagrams are from the 77 electrical trouble shooting manual. However, your earlier car is wired much the same, sometimes some of the wiring colors change over the years.
Wiring distribution in the fuse panel. Power enters the panel, large red wire upper right. Feeds fuses you see here. Tail light fuse sends power out the orange wire to the headlight switch. Does not have anything to do with courtesy lights, power from tail light fuse leaves switch at "F". On diagram....next page.
Here we see what "F" feeds power to. Tail lights, side marker lights and front marker lights. That's a lot of places one could have a short.
Good luck, I hope this helps.
I've dug and dug and dug. Can't find anything called PKG lights that go through a 10 amp fuse.
Are you referring to the instrument lights?
Then yes, 20 amp fuse for tail light feeds power to headlight switch. With switch pulled to park or headlight power is sent to 5 amp instrument lights fuse. Perhaps a earlier car used a 10 amp fuse?
First i would like to thank everyone that replied with assistance.
Second just an FYI - the 20a fuse for taillight evidently feeds the switch and then the 5amp is just feeding off of it for the dash lights
My trouble was the passenger side taillight pigtail inside the boot.Evidently the painter had pulled on the wiring and it had pulled out one of the two wires inside the boot and was grounding out with the other and blowing the 20a fuse.I have done lots of electrical t-shooting over the years and it is always such an easy fix ,if you only knew exactly where ithe gremlin was.
Hopefully i can sleep now and not having to t-shoot ideas in my sleep
Help needed dash,pkg and taillight lights
