pjc360

how do i check for ground at the tail light?

NE frmhnd

Test light. Clip one lead on the mounting screw, touch the other lead to the contacts in the bottom of the socket when you have your blinker or tail lights on. If the test lights lights up, you have ground. If it doesn't, you don't.

pjc360

ok, well i added a ground wire to the grey wire heading into the rake and tail light socket and turned my headlights on and held the ground wire i made on the body and on the frame and it didnt change anything.
The passenger side tail light and brake light operates correctly but the drivers side tail light and brake light doesnt. When i turn my headlights on my drivers side tail light is lit up brighter then the passenger side taillight and with the lights on the brake light dont work on the drivers side because its always lit up.
This is starting to confuse me. Unless the grey wire i tapped into wasnt a ground wire? there was a black wire with yellow tracer on it then a brown wire with green tracer on it then a pure grey wire. So i tapped into the pure grey wire and ran a supplemental ground wire off of it and it didnt change whats going on?

pjc360

what i dont get is this deffanatly seems like a ground problem. So maybe i need to ground it closer to the battery? like up closer to the front of the truck? ether that or the grey wire i tapped into wasnt the ground wire and its ether the black wire with yellow tracer or the brown wire with the green tracer on it.

pjc360

I figured it out!!!! the previous owner of the truck had the tail light and brake light buld assembly wired up wrong. They had the green and brown wire hooked up to the black and yellow wire and the black and yellow wire hooked up to the green and brown wire!!!
I didnt notice it first, but it was a hack job with butt connectors. They used a about 6 inches of blue 16 gauage wire to connect the two together and they had the wrong wires connected to eachother.
I seen that and thought well i will hook them up like they are supposed to be and see what happens and ta da! everything is working now. wow i feel like an idot. i just never noticed that they had the wrong wires wired up to eachother. because it was such a mess butt connectors everywhere. but i got this one solved!!!

NE frmhnd

It happens. Try wiring trailer tail lights when you only have one spool of wire and one tail light to plug in to check function. I re-did that one when I went to use it.

j_martin

I use a lot of white wire for miscelaneous hook up. I identify the circuit with color coded tape, available in 5 or 10 packs (assorted) at yer local building supply. On my wiring a red and a blue stripe mean it's a violet wire.

JimmieD

On the Dodge pickups another ground circuit is required between the cab and bed. The factory one on my '90 was at lower left rear of cab, jumper wired to left front of bed, perfect place for nasty corrosion! The deal with grounds is continuity, step by step, component to component.

You can ground your rear tailight buckets direct to bed but as mentioned, you'll need the jumper between bed and cab to pass the message along. On my old '67 I also added jumper wires between front metal inner fenders and radiator support and to firewall.

If it's any consolation, I have a brand new super-deluxe Bo$ch hazard switch for my '67 that I never could get to work, acting just as insane as yours is!???

NE frmhnd

Didn't have any of that handy, either. I was able to use the original cord coming back through the frame of the bale trailer, just had to run 4 wires, three of them about 4 feet. Mixed up the ground and right blinker on the right side. It was one of those "don't skip doing something else to do it" projects, but was well worth the little effort it took.

I need to figure out why the stock trailer has no marker lights behind the boss's hydrabed now. He got caught on the way to town this morning.

JimmieD

That's 'Phasing Tape' or 'Phase Tape' mostly used in Commercial/Industrial 3-phase wiring circuits to identify phases. For happiness and peace of mind I strongly suggest getting only 3M Scotch 33+ electrical tape and phasing tape. Super sticky, good stretch, 600V protection per wrap, handles a fair amount of heat, very durable and long lasting, the best by far. Distant second choice is Plymouth Slipknot tape, nowhere near Scotch in performace.

deanhinsley1963

X2 on the scotch 33+ tape. Expensive and worth every penny!!!!

Trevor Keshick

Hi I have same problem with my truck as well except my flasher 552 fuse gets really hot and smokes every time I turn the left signal on. And also brake light and tail lights went out alon. With dash lights. I have no idea what’s going on?!

j_martin

Do you realize you just re-opened a 6 year old thread?

What you're seeing is a dead short to ground. That usually occurs where wiring is rubbing on linkage, like the transmission linkage, or getting pinched as in getting trapped between a spare tire and the frame.

Twist and tape trailer wiring is often the culprit, as is wires slipping out of the cheap screw clips in a 7 way trailer connector.

One trick I use for hunting down this sort of fault is to rig a couple of .250 flat male connectors to an old headlamp, whichever filament is still working with about 6 foot wires. Replace the failing fuse with those connectors, routing the circuit through the headlamp. Normal turn signal should work with a slight glow from the headlamp. A short lights it up bright. Lay it where you can see it, and harass the wiring till it winks at you.