Tail Lights

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F164
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Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

I don think the PO wired them correctly when he replaced the lights on my 64 flareside.

It looks like both filaments are on when the head lights are on. There are no brake lights when the headlights are on.

When the headlights are off, there are weak brake lights.

The rear turn signals work with the headlights off, but do not work if the headlights are on.

Do I need to cut the wires on each side of the harness and swap them?
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Toyz
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Toyz »

Regular old adage: check all grounds before changing up wires. Also carefully check bulb orientation to as certain they are installed correctly and have a good ground to the sockets. Circuits will attempt to ground via the adjoining circuit if ground is insufficient, which may explain the differences when other circuits are activated.

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Re: Tail Lights

Post by William-in-St George »

Run a ground from the bed to the frame underneath the truck where it will be out of sight. Run a ground from the engine or transmission to the frame. Run a ground from the core support to the frame and one more from the cab to the engine. You should also be sure the cluster is grounded to the cab, usually on the column/pedal support. You will be happy at the results of this simple installation.
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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

Im not following the logic.

Why is this a ground problem?

Could I have a bad pressure switch? I will unplug the pressure switch and see what happens.

The fronts work fine.
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Toyz
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Toyz »

In general, poor grounding represents a majority of circuit problems. Your described symptoms fall well into this long distance diagnosis. A bulb not securely grounding in it's socket can be hard to isolate but can be easily checked by probing with a test light. If both filaments are attempting to light, the. It is a ground problem; bypassing the switch will not solve the problem; only complicate the diagnostics.
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Mr. Jones
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Mr. Jones »

Three wires running down the drivers side frame rail.
1) Yellow...left blinker
2) Green...right blinker
3) Brown...tail lights
Use a pointed electrical tester,check the original wiring first,then all the new ones.If the p/o soldered the wires,May have used plumbers solder,if so ripe it all out and replace (just the new stuff)
Good luck with it......
Dan
Last edited by Mr. Jones on December 5, 2014, 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Toyz
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Toyz »

I believe brown is tail lamps, brake lamps are energized through turn signal wires.

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Re: Tail Lights

Post by kstones63 »

Follow Paul's advise on checking grounds. Bad grounds will make you spend a lot of time chasing electrical wires and then you are likely to pull all of your hair out before you are done and then find a bad ground.

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Re: Tail Lights

Post by bobenhotep »

9 times out of 10 if you have a weird electrical problem that defies logic, it is a ground fault. You can test for a bad ground several ways, I usually ground the bed with jumper cables. If it suddenly acts normal when you do that, you have a bad ground. The ground with jumper cables trick also works when troubleshooting trailers.

The tail light wires are easy to remember if you remember that the left signal is yellow, because yellow has the letter "L" in it. Green is for right, because green has an "R" in it, and the brown wire is for the markers, because you turn them on when it is dark outside.

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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

I looked the system over yesterday.

I have a flareside bed.

The metal housings are attached to the bed with a chrome bracket. The bracket is bolted to the painted surface of the bed with ss bolts/nuts. I do not see any metal to metal contact that would ground the housings to the bed. How did Ford ground the housings?

The fronts and the cluster are attached with sheet metal screws that provide a ground.
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F7BIGJOB »

I also have a flareside bed, all new, after about 2 years time I had some lighting issues with my rear lamps, took jumper cables from frame to bed, they worked as they should. added a braided ground strap from the chassis to the bed, no issues since. Every time I go out with my truck I do a walk around, ie: parking ights and hazards on. If you do this and see one side dim or alternating [like a school bus ] you more than likely will find you have a ground issue. :2cents:
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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

No luck using the cables today.

I think that I will have to ground the housings to the frame. Everything was disassembled and painted, I couldn't find any bare metal on the frame or bed to hook the battery cables to.

If the lamp housings are not grounded to the bed, and I don't think they are, then grounding the bed to the frame isn't going to make any difference.

I will work on it some more tomorrow.
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unibody madness
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by unibody madness »

I had a similar problem with my sons flair side. All the advice given is valuable.
Originally star washer were used between painted metal surfaces, when you tightened the screws or bolts the teeth would cut through the paint and provide the ground.
After insuring all the housings and the bed were grounded I still had an issue with one side.
After scratching my head my head for awhile, I removed the lenses then the bulbs and cleaned the inside of the bulb socket with a battery post cleaning brush, then pinched them down a little to insure good contact. No problems since
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Toyz
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Toyz »

And you can easily test for the problem John described. Just insert the test lamp probe between bulb base and socket. If the lamp then lights, it needs more cleaning/ bending. A mis- installed bulb will often result in the same symptoms.
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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

Everything is new. The tails have the correct 1157 installed correctly in the socket.

Tomorrow I will work on the grounds some more. I think that I will have to run a ground wire from the housing to the frame because I do not see any ground from the housing to the bed or the housing to the frame.

The styleside tail lights are grounded with a sheet metal screw that attaches the bucket to the bed. The flareside doesn't use sheet metal screws so there is no metal to metal contact.
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unibody madness
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by unibody madness »

Actually the tail light buckets bolt directly to a metal flange that should be through bolted to the bed corner, so if installed with the proper star washers should achieve ground.
You can sheet metal screw a wire from the bucket, and run it with the power wires in a loom till you reach the frame and bolt or screw it there.
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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

I am at a loss here.

I grounded both tail lights to the frame. Good solid grounds, metal to metal.

When I turn on the parking lights or headlights, both filament's light and the turn signals and brake lights do not work.

If I turn the lights off, the turn signals and brake lights work.

When the headlights are on and the turn signals are not working, the dash indicator still works.
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Toyz
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by Toyz »

Time to move to the front! Unplug the connector (if still there) at the column. Do you now have single filament tail/license lamps? Check both key on/off.
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F164
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F164 »

Havent had time to work on the lights.

This seems odd, is it correct for a 64?

The front turn signals are 1157s, same as the rear.

When the parking lights are on, they light, when the headlights are on, they are not lit.

If that is correct, why would it be a dual element lamp?
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Re: Tail Lights

Post by F7BIGJOB »

Because that lamp assembly is both parking lamp and turn signal lamp, you need both filaments say when your parking lights are 'on' dim one is parking, bright one for turn signal. Unless you've got the optional fender lamps in which [ if factory] the parking lamp assembly would have a single [1156 ] filament socket and bulb.


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