please help - Mystery Light Gremlin - Grounding?

rkelly · Post by **rkelly** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:17 am

ok i'm not that great with electrical but i have a 71 super and have some major issues going on with my taillights. seems when my lights are off i have brake lights coming from the middle bulb, but when there on i have nothing but my running lights. my turn signals only work when my lights are off but when there on i have nothing. can some post a wire digram for just the tailights so my basic level can fix the mess.

Speedy Jim · Post by **Speedy Jim** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:38 am

Look on this page of my web site:
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/htm/elec.htm

The symptoms you described are caused by a bad Ground connection.

On your car, the ground is located behind the tarboard on each side
of the engine bay. The open ground could also be inside the lamp
housing, but I would look behind the tarboards first.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

rkelly · Post by **rkelly** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:48 pm

well the ground wires that hookup to the car itself behind the tarboard are both hooked up. someone sent me a wire diagram off the samba which is the whole car and there wires that are labeled 9,10,11, and 12 that i have no idea where they are or what their for. i'll take a look at your site and hopefully it will help me

Speedy Jim · Post by **Speedy Jim** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:57 pm

Wiggle the connections behind tarboard around in case they are corroded.

Wiggle the bulbs in their socket too as the brass shell is the ground.

Still no luck, let me know.

rkelly · Post by **rkelly** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:32 pm

thanks i'm going to try that here in a few minutes, and your link is helpful so that should solve my problems

rkelly · Post by **rkelly** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:28 pm

boy am i a tool. turns out the drivers side rear tail light was missing the screws that hold the light bulb housing into the the car, so after finding a set of screws to fit it both brake lights work. go me

bugninva · Post by **bugninva** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:54 pm

rkelly wrote:boy am i a tool. turns out the drivers side rear tail light was missing the screws that hold the light bulb housing into the the car, so after finding a set of screws to fit it both brake lights work. go me

see? Jim was correct, you didn't have a good ground!!!

glad you found your problem *and* that you reported it to the thread so future folks that search can see the "fix" to the "problem" you had..

rkelly · Post by **rkelly** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:15 pm

who would have guessed that the silver plate that holds the bulbs is part of the ground

Speedy Jim · Post by **Speedy Jim** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:28 pm

Good job.

All's well that ends well...

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:58 pm

title edited for future searching... thanks for the post.. glad it worked out.