I've been struggling to get, and keep, the taillights working in the Impala. I've cleaned all the sockets, filed the edges of the deck lid and quarter panel where they snap in, and still the brake lights and turn signals work erratically. They'll work after I've fussed with them, then when the running lights are on, and the brakes are applied, they still seem to work like there is a bad ground. The lights will flash alternately (the pair on one side or the other) or they won't work with the lights on, or one side or the other won't flash with the brakes applied. The turn signal switch behind the steering wheel seems to be worn, the lever has "sweet spots" where the turn signals will come on, they won't self cancel, and the entire collar moves on the column. It has an aftermarket Grant wheel, I'm thinking this may not be cancelling the stock signal, and that the PO and me trying to wiggle stalk around to the right spot may have added to the problem. Before I order up new turn signal switch parts, and/or a stock wheel, does it sound like I'm looking at the right thing?
I'd do the turn signal bits in the column either way. You can actually unbolt the little turn signal cancel plate from the back of a stock Chevy wheel of this era and bolt it to the back side of the Grant adapter to make it cancel. If shit is moving around inside the column, something is wrong, might just be some screws or bolts missing. As for tail light grounds, I had an issue on my '57 Chevy with the parking lights not grounding. The bulb grounds to the steel housing, through the die cast hood bar, through the aluminum grille mesh, into the inner fenders. I couldn't get a solid ground through all of those steps. I ended up just bolting a jumper wire from the grille bar stud to a nice clean spot on the core support. I would take each tail light bucket out and test continuity from the bulb socket to the mounting stud, see if there's resistance there. Have had a few that got a bit of corrosion between the aluminum housing and the crimped over bulb socket, enough that it'd only work if you wiggled it. If there is not resistance, I'd try jumpering a ground from each stud to the body somewhere, I think there's already a ground screwed into the body by the trunk latch, then see if you've eliminated the problem. Would be kinda ugly with jumper grounds, but at least you could pinpoint it somewhere. You could ground all 3 lights together stud to stud, and then run one to the body in the center, to make it cleaner if that helps. If there's no resistance in the housings by themselves and jumper grounds don't improve it, then it's gotta be somewhere else. I do wonder what the turn signal switch wiring looks like inside the column if the switch itself is moving around in there, if it's chafing against something you may have sawn through the wire insulation somewhere.
Your problem certainly sounds like a ground problem. Chevy's with the tail lights in the deck lid did suffer from lost grounds. You can check to see if and/or where your ground problem is with a digital voltmeter. Connect one lead to battery negative (it's best to connect directly to the battery with a long jumper). Take the other lead and touch the lamp socket base of each lamp. The meter should read less than 0.2 volts. It will read a lot higher on any that have a bad ground right up to 12 volts. That way you know where your problem is located. You might have to run a ground strap between the deck lid and the body. A funky turn signal switch throws another unknown into the equation. In general, if you are getting power back to the lamps, it isn't the switch.
The turn signal switch is not behind the steering wheel on a 62, it is mounted at the lower part of the column and a wire from the lever actuates the switch.
On one of my old cars when I was young (14 or15) I had this problem. What I did, right or wrong, cleaned one of the sockets and soldered a wire to it then screwed the other end to the body. Now the car I did it to had a ground wire in the socket and loom and jumped between the rest of the sockets. I don't know it yours does that or just a straight ground of the socket itself. ....
how I fixed the ground on the tail light on the Corvette...but I don't remember if the 62 full size car sockets work like this? I think not. Like he said, the switch is on the side of the column, and the cable that actuates it will be flaky, as will the switch itself, and the mechanism that moves the cable up and down when you move the lever. Good luck.
Not sure on a ‘62 , but had a similar problem on my buddies’66 LeSabre. The ribbon harness connector that runs back to the rear was under the carpet by the brake pedal. Years of putting his foot down worked the connector loose. Took a while to find.
Those tail light housing have a few pieces pressed together that are meant to ground, over the years not so much. You can either do like Squirrel did or take it all apart and clean every piece. Also the fact that it also relies on the trunk lid grounding through the hinges, might also need to run a ground wire to the body. This is assuming that you've checked to make sure it's a faulty ground.
I worked on a sixty four impala a while ago and ended up putting a ground strap from the trunk lid to the body next to the hinge
Sometimes a power or ground wire can break inside the insulation, usually at a lug or connector, so you can't see it with a visual inspection. The break is sort of in contact but sort of not and that makes the continuity erratic so it comes and goes. You need a meter, time, and patience to find where the break is.
While you have the wheel off to fix the switch, find an original to put back on. Those year Shivvies have the nicest wheels straight from the factory.
I had a dim taillight on one side of a 56 Nomad. Did like squirrel did, and also ran a clean ground to the frame. Drove me crazy. Measured fine with a VOM, but had a low resistance under load.
That's why you do a voltage drop test. This type of test is done with current flowing (under load). You can easily find bad grounds.
Been a problem forever. Solder the wire to the socket ground to metal. Then add a ground from deck lid to body.
Thanks for all the responses. I'm having a hip replacement tomorrow morning (hot rodders are, I guess, getting old, myself included) so I'm not doing too much right now, but I did, I think, figure out the issue. First thing I did was run a ground wire from the deck lid to the hinge support on the body, that got all the lights working, all the time. So, there was indeed a grounding issue for the trunk lid and it's lights. Secondly, I dug out my shop manual, found the turn signal switch on the steering column jacket, and discovered immediately that in my current, semi-crippled state, there's no way I'm gonna be able to get to the 5/16" screw on the top of the bracket to remove the switch. I can feel it, but there's no way I can get a socket, or an open end on it. If I did manage to get it out I don't think I could get it started in the threads, turns out that's not the problem anyway, so I switched gears... What I did was, I pushed the slider (accessible with the switch "in situ"), visible with the switch in place back and forth in it's travel with a small screwdriver, and the turn signals work as they are supposed to, every time. Which is encouraging, and tells me that the problem is behind the steering wheel at the top of the housing. As I mentioned, the turn signal stalk seems "floppy". It simply doesn't push or pull the little cable that connects the switch to the cam behind the wheel fully through it's travel to operate the switch. I'm sure the cam that's in the housing with the self-canceling pawls on it is loose in the jacket, which is why the lever just flops around. So, I'm gonna order up that part, which is pretty cheap, and get the correct Impala steering wheel, and when I get to feeling like going out to the shop to work on it, all the parts that I need to fix this (and get rid of the ugly Grant wheel) will be here. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to get out to the garage and tackle this, it'll give me something productive to do.
A little advice for what it's worth even though I've never had a hip replaced. But I know many who have and I've had a complete knee replacement and rotator cuff repair. Follow the Dr's instructions, don't rush your recovery, do your PT 100% and you should be good to go in no time at all.
For sure. I had the other one done 9 years ago, same surgeon, same procedure, called "Birmingham Hip Resurfacing". Rather like a crown on a tooth, this saves my femur from being lopped off and a spike hammered into it. Uses a titanium cap that's glued to the existing ball of the femur, and a matching cup glued into my pelvis. Hopefully, just like my gluing the the patch panel on the Impala, there won't be a glue line visible when it's done...
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