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Longhorn Man · 08-01-2005, 09:19 PM

We actually found a faulty part like that the other day at work. Some one said that the 10 amp fuse that kept popping was too smal so they installed a 15 amp....Followed the smoke, and found the problem! (I don't recomend this though)

The tail lights work like a headlight, a high beam and low beam. (so to speak) The low beam is your tail lights, and the high beam is the brake/turn signal. There are only 2 wires going to each tail light... one for high, one for low. When you hit the brakes, the brake light signal (hi beam) has to go through the turn signal first. (Directly after the brake light switch) This way, you can have the left turn signal on, and the brake light on on the right. If you did not do it this way, then when you'd hit the breakes, the blinking light would stop blinking becouse you'd be putting power to the high beam side with the brakes. So even though the turn signal is flashing, there is still power to that side of the light when the signal is in the dark side of the flashing.
Under the dash, and to the left of the column is a horse shoe shaped harness plug, this goes to the turn signal. Unplug it. You'll probably need a small (tiny) flat head screwdriver. be carefull, 35 year old plastic isn't very user friendly. Then, replace your blown fuse, and then hit the brake pedal. If the fuse lives, then your problem is in the column.
In my opinion, since you have a sloppy column, and possably a crapped out turn signal switch, I would take this oportunity to swap out the whole column for a van tilt. The truck columns (straight ones) are crappy by nature, whom ever made that set up was probably sniffin glue that morning, why GM used it up into the early 90's in the P/30 chassis I'll never know...they had much better crappy columns by then. But, the 72 - 81 van tilt (no key in column) is a pretty simple column, and not many problems come from them. Plus, as an added bonus, they are cheap and plentifull in the junk yards. If you can't find one up there, I'm willing to bet I can locate one here. (however, when i say I can find one, they are no where to be found, but if I say i can't find them, I'll spot 4 the next time I'm in the junk yard)

08-01-2005, 09:19 PM	#9
Longhorn Man its all about the +6 inches Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Hilliard Ohio Posts: 2,690	We actually found a faulty part like that the other day at work. Some one said that the 10 amp fuse that kept popping was too smal so they installed a 15 amp....Followed the smoke, and found the problem! (I don't recomend this though) The tail lights work like a headlight, a high beam and low beam. (so to speak) The low beam is your tail lights, and the high beam is the brake/turn signal. There are only 2 wires going to each tail light... one for high, one for low. When you hit the brakes, the brake light signal (hi beam) has to go through the turn signal first. (Directly after the brake light switch) This way, you can have the left turn signal on, and the brake light on on the right. If you did not do it this way, then when you'd hit the breakes, the blinking light would stop blinking becouse you'd be putting power to the high beam side with the brakes. So even though the turn signal is flashing, there is still power to that side of the light when the signal is in the dark side of the flashing. Under the dash, and to the left of the column is a horse shoe shaped harness plug, this goes to the turn signal. Unplug it. You'll probably need a small (tiny) flat head screwdriver. be carefull, 35 year old plastic isn't very user friendly. Then, replace your blown fuse, and then hit the brake pedal. If the fuse lives, then your problem is in the column. In my opinion, since you have a sloppy column, and possably a crapped out turn signal switch, I would take this oportunity to swap out the whole column for a van tilt. The truck columns (straight ones) are crappy by nature, whom ever made that set up was probably sniffin glue that morning, why GM used it up into the early 90's in the P/30 chassis I'll never know...they had much better crappy columns by then. But, the 72 - 81 van tilt (no key in column) is a pretty simple column, and not many problems come from them. Plus, as an added bonus, they are cheap and plentifull in the junk yards. If you can't find one up there, I'm willing to bet I can locate one here. (however, when i say I can find one, they are no where to be found, but if I say i can't find them, I'll spot 4 the next time I'm in the junk yard)