Taillight problem

[Sporin]

I would love some help on my taillight issue.

The Dside works fine, turn signal blinks, regular light, brake light.

The Pside works for regular light & brake light but doesn't blink. I thought this was a slam dunk when I opened it up since 1 of the 4 green wires was cut, so I fixed that but no dice. Also it doesn't seem nearly as bright as the other side in any position.

I pulled the steering wheel off and cleaned up the switch ball thingy and put in dialectic grease. Tee fuses are all fine and clean. I unplugged the wire going to the flasher unit under the dash and cleaned it, dialectic greased and reattached firmly.

Still nothing when the signal stock goes up, I get 1 click/blink then it just stops.

Thoughts? Where should I look next? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Check grounds first for any electrical problem. That's often the cause!

 

[shermantank55]

My similar taillight issues turned out to be from a connector behind the cover panel in the cargo compartment. It is on the fuel fill side of the truck. The connector was corroded and loose. Now my rear lights work great.

 

[Sporin]

Thanks, I dug around inside the panels some more last night. I found one connector that didn't seem to go to anything that sort of pigtailed out of the wires going to the tail light. I tried grounding it, didn't change anything.

I'm going to look through the wires other side that works and see if I can figure out what I'm missing on non-working side

 

[Sporin]

doing more searching and reading and is it possible the ground on my FRONT turn signal on that side is bad and causing the issue in the back, now that I think about it I'm not sure the front signal on that side is blinking.... anxious to get home and see what's up.

 

[inkpot]

Howdy! Not trying to be a smartass, but have you replaced the bulbs? Also, check inside the bulb sockets. The contact points inside mine were corroded, and full of dirt, so I used a battery terminal brush to clean it out. John

 

[surfpig]

I had a similar issue last summer: the wire loom was rubbing against the body in the back where there was supposed to be a grommet. The rubbing had finally severed a couple of wires. It took some careful tracing to find it...

 

[cruiser_guy]

doing more searching and reading and is it possible the ground on my FRONT turn signal on that side is bad and causing the issue in the back, now that I think about it I'm not sure the front signal on that side is blinking.... anxious to get home and see what's up.

If the rear doesn't blink the front isn't blinking either!!

 

[Sporin]

yup, confirm this morning that the Pside front blinker lights but isn't blinking either.

Next step will be to get that grounded well.

All the bulbs are good as far as I can tell, but I am going to replace them all since I have things apart.

 

[Sporin]

alright, changed all the bulbs and went through all the ground checks on the front blinker. No change. I know the front is grounded right since when I ground the inside panel of the light directly to battery negative it acts the same way.

thoughts?

 

[Southeast Overland]

I had problems with my tag lights not working. I had a fellow club member who is some sort of electrical guru help me out. He spent several hours tracking down wiring in my Pig and we eventually ran a new wire back to the lights. Could you just say $#*# it and run a new wire?

 

[Lucy_FJ55]

Just began driving my project after over a year and I conveniently forgot I had blinker/light issues. Left front/rear never work and the right side ones sometimes work. I can't stand electrical shat. Good practice though, I suppose.
Let us know what you come up with for a solution.

Thanks, Carlos.

 

[Sporin]

Thanks, I'm going to dig back into the light socket I replaced in the Pside Rear and see if the bulb maybe isn't hooking up right.

 

[RHINO]

something to remember, the lights have a built in non blink mode when one has problems, this is to let you know a light burned out, but with age has turned into a general go-no go tool. it sounds to me you simply have a bad ground due to corrosion, chaffing or break. with a test light attached to the signal wire you should provide the resistance to make the system blink, so it can be used as a sort of "chaser", if you start up front and work your way back you might be able to find the source of the break if there is one. if that doesnt seem to work too well i would start at the socket in the tailight and work forward cleaning and checking. i had to go through mine the same way many moons ago, its a PITA but its also good therapy.

 

[Sporin]

SUCCESS!!!!

I went back to the original repair, the replacement socket and found it wasn't seated well and was too far down, the bulb wasn't making good contact to the 2 little wire-end buttons.

Once that was fixed I was getting 3-2 blinks, then stopping. So I knew I was on the right track.

However, once I pushed the light bucket FIRMLY into it's hole everything worked fine! So now it's all put back together and working just as it should. I can't imagine the light bucket grounds through the body of the truck since it has a big rubber gasket between it and the body so.... who knows?!?!

Either way, I'm not fighting it, that was my last electrical bugaboo so I can move on to the next half of my to-do list:.... which is long.

Thanks everyone for all your tips and help!

Dave

 

[RHINO]

congrats!! feels good doenit