No brake or parking lights

[mentalQtip]

Hi again. Gotta '74 thing. Was having backup light problems that did turn out to be cruddy light sockets.
Now struggling with no brake or parking lights.

I tried putting power from the coil directly to the little connector box each side in the rear. Lights burn brightly.
Tried pulling the wires off the master cylinder and shorting/jumping them. Should have caused the brake lights to turn on.
Tried a test light grounding the clip. No juice there.
checked the fuse. tested hot on both sides with the test light. Replaced it anyway.
Ok, there is an open circuit somewhere. Where should I be looking? My neck doesn't like looking under the dash anymore.

Thanks. I appreciate the help I've been given here, alot.

Joseph

[Marc]

If the lights all work when power is jumpered in at the connectors in the rear, it sounds like you're past any ground problems - but that would mean there are two separate problems taking down the brake lamps and the taillamps. Since the backup lights are working now the lamp assemblies must be grounded OK.

If there is power at the brakelamp fuse (#2), there should also be power at one terminal (81a) of each stoplight switch plug at the master cylinder. Check the inline connection between the fusepanel and the harness going down to the master cylinder. When you step on the brakes the circuit is closed from 81a to 81, which goes back to the lights (black/redstripe wire). There's also an inline connector in that switched power returning from the stoplight switches where it meets the wire in the main harness.
http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/181_fr ... 1973-3.jpg

There are 2 fuses for the taillamps. #8 runs the left taillight, while #7 does the right tail and both front parking lamps (as well as the license plate light). No explanation for such uneven load distribution, but there should be power at both the gray/blackstripe and gray/redstripe wires coming off the fusepanel and going into the main harness.

[mentalQtip]

Worse than no brake lights and not knowing why is suddenly having light on the right and having know idea what I did. This is by pushing a wire into each plug. The long on

I pushed a few of the wires coming off the fuse box around and there was one connector with two black wires connecting to one wire(the single wire was hot). I pulled it apart to find that it was hot.

I didn't see a black wire with red marking.

This bothers me because I felt good about understanding how the backup lights work. I feel bad because I don't get the brake lights yet.

and why would it only affect the right brake light?

After awhile one slowly catches on.
If since both switches in the mc affect both brake lights, if one light comes on that means that the problem must be after the wires split to the individual lights. Duh. I had tested the wires to the lights where they LEFT the little block to the lights. What about the wire coming from the right side to the left block? Pulled the wire and cleaned it and put it back and "there was light".

Thanks

Joseph

Marc special thanks to you and others. Putting it all together is what led me to the "light"

Now what about those parking lights?

[Kubelmann]

The TUV or German Auto Standards requires that on all German automobiles the ground wire of each circuit will have a brown plastic insulation sheathing. So the first step to gaining parking lights could be to check to ensure all brown wires near any parking lights are making a good solid non corroded electrical connection. This often will solve the issue you are having. K-mann