tail light wiring

[Combat Chuck]

Alright, I lost my running light leg of my harness. Bad short, one I couldn't fix, so I'm laying in my own harness for it, but I've hit a snag: I don't recall which green wire in the tail lights runs the rear running lights.

Passenger's side:
- white/black (Ground, common)
- Green/red bars
- Green/yellow

Driver's side:
- White/Black (ground, common)
- Green/red stripe
- Green/black

Anybody know which is which?

I don't want to pull a Juggernaut and cut the wrong wire, thus blowing myself up.
thanks.

 

[Combat Chuck]

turns out for a 1983 First-gen pickup, green/white stripe is brake, green/black stripe is passenger's side, green/red stripe is driver's side tail.
Just gotta button up all the in-dash junk, and I'll be golden.

 

[Sam Stewart]

I was going to offer up looking at my EWD but it seems you have figured it out. I rebuilt my whole harness back there basically from where it splits because the PO(s) had hacked it all to pieces. Someone installed a 4 pin trailer harness and used wire nuts... Yes the kind you use on house wiring... needless to say it didn't work well.

 

[Combat Chuck]

I was going to offer up looking at my EWD but it seems you have figured it out. I rebuilt my whole harness back there basically from where it splits because the PO(s) had hacked it all to pieces. Someone installed a 4 pin trailer harness and used wire nuts... Yes the kind you use on house wiring... needless to say it didn't work well.

Wire nuts???
Good lord!

I had it figured out years ago, but my notes became tinder at some point, and had to start over.

So far, I'm liking my new setup, each individual lamp has its own leg to the fuse, instead of branching off a main line, and a pair of toggles on the dash operates parking lights and dash lights. Pretty neat.

 

[Sam Stewart]

Wire nuts???
Good lord!

I had it figured out years ago, but my notes became tinder at some point, and had to start over.

So far, I'm liking my new setup, each individual lamp has its own leg to the fuse, instead of branching off a main line, and a pair of toggles on the dash operates parking lights and dash lights. Pretty neat.

I might end up with something like that as well. My wiring is pretty jacked on the whole truck. I was working on it yesterday (I'll post in the build thread in a little while) and my alt/charge light was on. I started looking at the alt and they had put an aftermarket one in with a jumper harness and only ONE of the 3 wires was connected... It's a never ending battle. My tail lights and brake lights are working, I think.

 

[Combat Chuck]

My .002 is to lop the box off about 12" back from the harness, find a sheet of ply and about 200 feet of automotive grade wire no smaller than 14 gauge, and build it up from scratch. That way you a wire it how you want, with thicker wire than stock (20 gauge).
Also, run toggles on everything, even if it makes your truck into a space ship, that way if a circuit goes, you can kill it before it barbecues the whole thing, because fusible link is more robust than 20 gauge.

 

[Sam Stewart]

My .002 is to lop the box off about 12" back from the harness, find a sheet of ply and about 200 feet of automotive grade wire no smaller than 14 gauge, and build it up from scratch. That way you a wire it how you want, with thicker wire than stock (20 gauge).
Also, run toggles on everything, even if it makes your truck into a space ship, that way if a circuit goes, you can kill it before it barbecues the whole thing, because fusible link is more robust than 20 gauge.

I already wired the tail section under the bed like that. I cut it where it branches off and re-wired the whole thing from there. No switches but it's all new wire.

 

[Combat Chuck]

I already wired the tail section under the bed like that. I cut it where it branches off and re-wired the whole thing from there. No switches but it's all new wire.

That's perfect, man.
If I could take the time out of my truck's functionality, I would build a new harness from scratch, zoned in six segments: FR lights, FL Lights, RR Lights, RL Lights, Engine, Dash. Each circuit would have its own toggle, and its own section of loom on weatherpack connectors, doubled up with backups. That way everything would be localized, modular, redundant, and available for direct control in case of emergency.
But then again, my life's philosophy is: "There's no kill like overkill".

 

[Sam Stewart]

That's perfect, man.
If I could take the time out of my truck's functionality, I would build a new harness from scratch, zoned in six segments: FR lights, FL Lights, RR Lights, RL Lights, Engine, Dash. Each circuit would have its own toggle, and its own section of loom on weatherpack connectors, doubled up with backups. That way everything would be localized, modular, redundant, and available for direct control in case of emergency.
But then again, my life's philosophy is: "There's no kill like overkill".

Haha. That is overkill. It sure would be easy to isolate problems tho. If you think about it, that's similar to how they do race cars so it makes sense. I don't have that much time and effort to give it unfortunately. I'll fix what's broken at this point and then go and see if I can break it some more.