Hey Guys, I had noticed a couple weeks ago that my p***enger side tail light and blinker were noticeable dimmer than the drivers side and then after I had a tire throw the tread off on the rear p***enger side it just stopped lighting up all together. I had figured the tire blowing hit the fixture and broke the bulb, but with new bulb in hand the old one looked fine and even when I swapped it nothing lit up. The wires run from the drivers side and kinda split off from there at splice from the manufacturer. The only other connection is we're the wiring harness joins the wires coming from the tail light. I checked all the connections and the wires for loseness and worn areas and it all looks fine. Which make me think that it's a bad ground, they are 1946-8 tail lights and ground threw the body so I'm not entirely sure how to make the ground any better or if I had a wire with alligator clips on each side what I would clip onto on the light to create a new ground to make sure that that is my issue before I go tearing into it more. Any ideas?
A regular old 10 dollar test light works great for troubleshooting taillights and turnsignals as teh bulb in teh test light has the perfect impedance to light and flash just like a regular taillight. Probe your taillight socket with your test lightand use a ch***is ground for ground and test both connectors in the socket. One will be hot wit the turn signal, the other will be hot only when the running lights are on. If you have power, use the socket as a ground and see if youstill have power. If you do not have power, see if you have any voltage coming out of the turn signal switch. That should at least get you going. Good luck, -Abone.
Thanks guys that gives me a good start. I like the idea of running a ch***is ground from the stud, I'll keep you posted when I figure it out.
I'd start with as you mentioned a piece of wire with aligator clips. Try that first to narrow down the ground. Then do as Jeff said with a test light. When you mentioned split to the manufactures wire,did you mean stock location,or stock 1946 wire?
Well your at it, I'd check all your grounds. Be sure you have good connections. Body to frame,engine to frame,core support to frame etc.
When I said split I ment were your tail light runs from the front to the back driver side and then jumps over to the p***enger side. It's all brand new wiring and every other ground for the system has been wire brushed and bolted tight. I just didn't have my head around how these ground so I didn't really know how to make the ground the best I could so I just bolted them in and they lit up til now.
Clarification: runs from switch to drivers back light then from drivers back light to p***enger back light
when i was working on light issues i usually ran a ground directly to battery as in one situation i later discovered most of the grounds ran on vehicle i was trying to fix had become loose and didn't always work. going direct eliminates guessing.
The old sockets themselves can get goofy- corroded, worn, sloppy, broken. There's little springs ( like from a ball point pen) and sometimes other scary stuff in there. They are pushing 70 years old. Most electrical gremlins are grounding issues.
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