Brake & tail lights, I've got none....

[Cris]

I read thru the ten pages found thru the search feature and printed off 2 pages worth of what I thought pertained
to the scenario in the title...
My truck has an old school aftermarket turn switch assm. clamped to the column which seems to work fine.
Turn signals work front & rear & I've got headlights too, so that's a bonus.
I'm trying to get the truck 'safe' to drive to the meet @ Red Rocks this Saturday (so all my fettering will take place
between getting home from work @about 6pm & darkness, no garage so time is precious) .

I'll be checking fuses & verifying I have good grounds back at the rear of the truck.
A quick glance back 'under there' & I see remnants of art least 2 different trailer light setups, which I'll be yanking
out to simplify (theoretically!) the wiring.

Anything else I should be checking to get some lights in back.
One more question, should I have parking lights in front, are the turn signals lights in front doubling up as parking lights, illuminated with the headlights turned on.?

[kksmamma]

had same problem with my 71 sweptline was brake switch under dash and bad wire at rear

[Cris]

had same problem with my 71 sweptline was brake switch under dash and bad wire at rear

Yep, my new brake light switch should be at the store today......

edit update//
New brake light switch is nothing like what I've got installed....
Did find a bad bulb in back.
Blown fuse which what my freshly delivered today service manual calls the park,dome,brake lights.
Cleaned all the contacts with emery cloth, squirted the taillight housings with the electronics cleaner stuff
(and emery clothed the guts as best I could) too.
Climbed in, turned the key to acc' after all that good work, no parking lights, no brake's or tails still...

And insult to injury time (of course) my trucks trying to tell me it hates my guts. Turned switch to start, hit my 'plan b' starter switch & the truck wouldn't start
and the darned thing wouldn't stop cranking when I released the plan b button....

One step forward and how many steps back is that.? Craptastic.!
Oh well, enough work (and damage!) for one nite. As always, I'm open to ideas here fellas (besides killing it with fire)

[Cris]

Quick update. Verified the new fuse popped when I turned on the headlights, direct short.
So last nite I yanked out all the old trailer harnesses and twist nut connectors & electrical tape splices and
a few bare wires too. So I've got the original wires coming out of the back lites, & a wire for the license plate light.
From the front of the truck I've got the brwn, green & yellow wires coming from the aftermarket turn signals & the red, black & I think it's
yellow coming from the original truck bits. Going to find a replacement headlight switch to swap at the same time.
I need to figure what goes to where and bolt it down.
The brake switch on my truck is a plunger type with one bullet connector mounted to the plunger top and a spade terminal on the side.
Still haven't ran the test light down anything, just replacing 'it' to fresh &^%$ at this point.

Cheers,
Cris
ps. two day to red rocks.

[Hobcobble]

Quick update. Verified the new fuse popped when I turned on the headlights, direct short.
So last nite I yanked out all the old trailer harnesses and twist nut connectors & electrical tape splices and
a few bare wires too. So I've got the original wires coming out of the back lites, & a wire for the license plate light.
From the front of the truck I've got the brwn, green & yellow wires coming from the aftermarket turn signals & the red, black & I think it's
yellow coming from the original truck bits. Going to find a replacement headlight switch to swap at the same time.
I need to figure what goes to where and bolt it down.
The brake switch on my truck is a plunger type with one bullet connector mounted to the plunger top and a spade terminal on the side.
Still haven't ran the test light down anything, just replacing 'it' to fresh &^%$ at this point.

Cheers,
Cris
ps. two day to red rocks.

Not knowing the year of your truck.....
http://www.sweptline.com/tech/67wire.jpg
Here's a '67 wiring diagram
John

[Cris]

Not knowing the year of your truck.....
http://www.sweptline.com/tech/67wire.jpg
Here's a '67 wiring diagram
John

Thanks for that.! I've got two drawings in my service book, but they mention converted drawings...
I'm guessing they changed the parking light set-up at some point around my year of mfg. (1966). I've got to find the schematic
for this aftermarket turn signal assembly, but I'm hioping it ties in to the usual colors for like trailer lighting setups. We'll see.!
Cheers,
Cris

[digdoug]

Do you have dash lights? If so, try grounding the tail light houseing to the frame.

[Cris]

Do you have dash lights? If so, try grounding the tail light houseing to the frame.

I had 'a' dash light...... Looks like the p.o. had the taillight frames grounded to the chassis, I'll definately be doing that, thanks
for the input.
Even with all the wires disconnected from the bowl of pasta that was my tail's & brake lights my direct short drained
my battery down to .97 of a volt, ouch.! Made no progress last nite.

[robertob]

On mine the lights were intermittent so I ran a 12ga ground wire from the firewall all the way down the frame to the rear, grounded it to the frame, then from there two 14ga ground wires go to the tail lights. Brightest tail lights I've ever seen on an old truck now...

[Cris]

On mine the lights were intermittent so I ran a 12ga ground wire from the firewall all the way down the frame to the rear, grounded it to the frame, then from there two 14ga ground wires go to the tail lights. Brightest tail lights I've ever seen on an old truck now...

I'm writing that down too.!!!!!!!!!

[Bubb]

I had a similar problem. Ended up being the bed to frame ground. Cleaned it up and reattached and good to go.

[Cris]

I had a similar problem. Ended up being the bed to frame ground. Cleaned it up and reattached and good to go.

Hey Bubb, where is that ground located.? Didn't see it while underneath the bed the last few nites.

Thanks.!
Cris

[Bubb]

Mine is on the drivers side frame rail just forward of the rear axle. Just a wire (16 ga I think) that screws into the frame on one end and into the bottom of one of the bed rails on the other. I didnt think that a ground from those two points would matter, but it does. There should also be one from the cab to the frame too.

Brad

[Cris]

Mine is on the drivers side frame rail just forward of the rear axle. Just a wire (16 ga I think) that screws into the frame on one end and into the bottom of one of the bed rails on the other. I didnt think that a ground from those two points would matter, but it does. There should also be one from the cab to the frame too.

Brad

Ahhh ok, thanks Brad. I hadn'd spent much time fore of the rearend. Nice. I'll check that out too as well as the front one.

Didn't work on the truck at all, did go to the Red Rocks thing (in the wife's Xterra~), 15 or 16 trucks. Really cool.!
And yes I spent time underneath the butt of nearly all of them, looking at their wiring setups.

Cheers
Cris

[Cris]

Update time.! I've got tailights now. Head light switch replacement cured lack of lites.
They look super bright, which makes me think I've got them wired wrong in back,,,,,,
maybe/might be all the lights coming on at once. Need to straighten out the wiring more I guess.
Time will tell.

Cheers,
Cris

[Enon]

You never want your ground wire that long!!!! Good rule of thumb is a 1/4 of the length of the positive line at longest

[Cris]

You never want your ground wire that long!!!! Good rule of thumb is a 1/4 of the length of the positive line at longest

Good to know, thanks for that.

Update~ I'm winning this battle on my truck. Now have tails, brakes & turns (thanks to you guys!). Gonna pretty it up with shrinktubing
water tight connectors and proper colored wires to martch the harness.

Thanks again for the help. The 'brightness' mentioned in one of my numerous posts above was do to me
having everything backwards on the tail lights, swapped what I thought was correct completely and
now everything is the correct level of brightness. I've got grounds going from each housing to the frame too.!

[Enon]

Glad to here!!!!