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Deffective tail light assembly?

Morris

Yoda
Offline
The guy who backed into my car bought me some new tail light assemblies from moss. My car is a '79 but I bought the early style assemblies.

The right assembly works as expected, the left has issues. With all the leads plugged into the correct wires, I signal light works as expected, but when I turn my head lights on, my tail light flashes and my signal light does not. If I apply the brakes, the signal lamp lights and nothing flashes. I have checked all the leads, and they show the correct voltage at the correct time. The signal lead flashes 12v. The tail lights and brake leads show a steady 12v when appropriate. I checked continuity between the chassis and the assembly mounting studs and it is good. I checked continuity to ground between the signal bulb holder and there was none.

What do you guys think? Is there an issue with my wiring, or is it the assembly?
 
Sounds like the assembly is not grounding properly. To check, run a jumper wire from the signal bulb holder to ground and see if your lights work properly.
 
Ah yes, a bit of very poor circuit design that left rear light fixture. If I am not mistaken the left fixture is grounded through the screws that hold it to the body only--there is no dedicated ground wire. Even if you show continuity, that does not mean that the ground is actually good enough to carry all the current you need to make the lights function correctly.

If you are having a problem run a tap through the screw holes in the body and clean them out good, or better yet, run your own home-made ground wire from the screw to the body somewhere.

Good luck
Charlie
 
YES! I ran an auxiliary ground to one of the mounting screws and the man we all know as "Bob" has been revealed to be your father's brother!

Thank you guys!
 
LOL. Now, don't forget the code. G R O U N D S
 
Morris said:
man we all know as "Bob" has been revealed to be your father's brother!

Edie is his wife but might lights don't work any better.
 
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