Slick 60's

Another day another problem, but this is a new different one so thats good...? Thanks.

So - I thought I had this pinpointed to the brake pedal but now I'm not sure. Just now I put in a fresh 20a fuse - which is the yellow wire in the fuse box and red wire going through firewall to stop brake switch. This is the one that keeps blowing and knocking out the lights.

Anyways, I put a fresh fuse in. Walked around the truck while it is running and all the lights are working except the drivers taillight... Turn the truck off and then the push the light switch in to turn the lights off, then take out the drivers taillight to confirm it is secure and the bulb is good. Reattach the drivers taillight, restart the truck and the fuse has blown.... I don't get it.

I did confirm that all the wiring underneath the truck from tail to engine look good (didn't unwrap them all, but there were no worn areas at all).

Sounds as if the stop/turn contact in the socket is shorting. If it does not blow the fuse with bulb out, it has got to be shorting to ground in that area. I would buy a replacement socket and splice it in. You are probably aware that the power for the stop lamp switch on our slicks comes from the flasher power.
Paul

I'm not really sure how it works, no. Two wires, and the ground is just the housing?

Correct, highly recommend running a ground from the housing to body or frame. It is possible for the stop lamp to attempt to ground through the tail lamp circuit if no other ground, but I would not expect it to blow a 20 amp fuse. It sounds more like the hot contact for the stop bulb may be grounding out.
Paul

Well... The current installment of this saga, yes I said saga.

reattached everything I had apart and so I now have headlights, parking lights, and taillights but no brake lights.

The source of the short was a bad stop light switch apparently because that left unplugged fixed the issue. Bought a new one and now no short but also no brake lights or rear turn signals.

-I'm not sure I have the leads going into the brake lights themselves hooked up correctly. Would accidentally swapping them cause lights on but no brake lights?

-I haven't gone into the steering column yet, but it seems like from searching that potentially the turn signal switch could be causing issues.

-Do I have to do anything special to install the new stop light switch? I just screwed the old one out and the new one in.

Thanks!

Brake lamp connections are reversible, but I doubt the problem was in the switch itself. Unplugging it simply indicates that the short is at or downstream from the switch. Turn signal switch IS a good possibility, but I would certainly eliminate any other potential sources before removing the t.s. switch. Assuming the new switch had sealant on it, you should be fine by just tightening it. It sounds as if you may have blown the t.s. fuse, thus no brake lamps or turn signals. If that were the case, however, your front turn signals also would not illuminate. Reversing the wiring at the tail lamps should result in brighter tail lamps and dimmer turn/brake lamps. For diagnostic purposes, you may want to eliminate the brake switch from the circuit with a simple jumper. That will allow you to test the circuit without having the pedal depressed. One other caveat; somewhat late! If you are going to do key-on testing, lift the positive lead off the coil to avoid potential damage to the electrical system.
Paul

Toyz your dedication to this thread is heroic. Thank you.

The wiring has all been in some state of ill-repair and I think my issue now is just something stupid down the line which is causing my issue. For example, someone had wired out hi-beams in the engine bay. They just combined two wires that would normally make it work as stock and thus had lights but it was all messed up. I still don't have hi-beams, but I fear the headlights are not designed to have hi-beams and are just 'driving' lights. I'll keep plugging along and if the issue I end up fixing is relevant to a common slick problem I will post back what the solution was.

Thanks again. Beers on me if you are ever in the City of Chicago.

If the headlamps have a three-prong connection, they are dual-beam, almost all 7" headlamps are. Of course, that doesn't address getting power to each beam. I expect the easiest solution would be to pick up a quality headlamp relay and wiring kit such as Bobenhotep makes. Then it's just a matter of connecting the current power source to the dimmer switch, with new wires running from dimmer to sensor side of relays for a simple and permanent solution.
Paul

x2 on the headlight relays and wiring

you can buy the ready made harnesses or make your own as i did.

either way reading this article is a good idea as it gives much understanding to headlight issues
http://www.ford-trucks.com/articles/whi ... r-brights/

well high beams are still up in the air, but brake lights and rear turn signals are seemingly fixed. I replaced the rear bulbs with a sylvania brass housing 2057 bulb which has the same bulb shape and design with apparently a different wattage. Not sure what the reason for this working now is, but maybe the 1157 housing bulbs I had were shorting b/c of the non-brass housing?

dvotion wrote:well high beams are still up in the air, but brake lights and rear turn signals are seemingly fixed. I replaced the rear bulbs with a sylvania brass housing 2057 bulb which has the same bulb shape and design with apparently a different wattage. Not sure what the reason for this working now is, but maybe the 1157 housing bulbs I had were shorting b/c of the non-brass housing?

2057 32/2 candle power
1157 32/3 candle power [ tail lamp is dimmer ] base whether brass or nickel I don't think it matters?

Right. But could the non-conductive brass housing be isolating a ground?

Either way they work as 2057 but not 1157...? Strange.

Also F7, I like your wheel tire setup, how would one go about getting something similar?

Talking about the spare?

dvotion wrote:Right. But could the non-conductive brass housing be isolating a ground?

Either way they work as 2057 but not 1157...? Strange.

Also F7, I like your wheel tire setup, how would one go about getting something similar?

I believe brass is a good conductor; without the bulb base being grounded, the bulb would have to ground thru another circuit. I can see no reason for the 1157s not to work unless the 2057 has some minute difference in the contact area.
Paul

Yea it looks like I was wrong that brass IS a conductor, so I do not know why they work.

At least they DO work! It may have to do with the increased conductivity. If you drive at night, you may want to find a pair of quality 1157s to regain that 50% additional wattage, especially if your taillamp housings have lost the majority of their reflectivity as most have.
Paul

F7BIGJOB wrote:Talking about the spare?

No, all of your wheel / tire setup I really like.

Toyz wrote:At least they DO work! It may have to do with the increased conductivity. If you drive at night, you may want to find a pair of quality 1157s to regain that 50% additional wattage, especially if your taillamp housings have lost the majority of their reflectivity as most have.
Paul

Yea I think I'll find some brass housing 1157's to test - Helloooo Amazon.

I painted the insides of my housings chrome a while back so they really aren't that bad.

haha, I was wondering about that - but then we drive slicks right? We aren't going for 'quiet.'

Are they bias ply?