How to Ground my tail lights ?

[jondancer]

I’m having some ground issues with my taillights and I want to splice into my tail light harness and run a hard ground . It’s my left rear light . The harness has two brown , a green , and a yellow wires .
I’d like to buy a whole new harness but don’t have the money .
Thanks for any help/info

[bill3rail]

Drop an extra ground to the frame in the back.

Quick and Easy!

Bill

[RogerKoop]

Do you have a wood floor. I had a truck with a wood floor and the bed was loose. Sitting in the driveway I did not have lights, but when we took off from a stop light they would come on. The bed was loosing ground because it was loose. All gm trucks use the bolts that hold it down to the frame for a ground circuit. To solve the problem I added a ground wire from the frame to the bed by the tail gate. This is also what takes place with your tail light housing. It must ground to the bed to make it work.

[jondancer]

Originally Posted by bill3rail

Drop an extra ground to the frame in the back.

Quick and Easy!

Bill

That’s what I want to do but how ?

[jondancer]

Originally Posted by RogerKoop

Do you have a wood floor. I had a truck with a wood floor and the bed was loose. Sitting in the driveway I did not have lights, but when we took off from a stop light they would come on. The bed was loosing ground because it was loose. All gm trucks use the bolts that hold it down to the frame for a ground circuit. To solve the problem I added a ground wire from the frame to the bed by the tail gate. This is also what takes place with your tail light housing. It must ground to the bed to make it work.

Not a wood bed

[Hubscrub]

The metal body of the light is your ground, clean it well. You can hook a wire to your light body to frame/body
also make sure your body is grounded with the proper ground straps.

[franken]

Chances are there are the remains of a ground strap from each frame rail to the bed floor. The traps might be gone but the terminals might still be there with the bolts. Google ground straps for pics. You can make a few with some 8 or 10 stranded wire and terminals, but a strap kit might be easier.
Of course you need to ground the big - cable to the engine, then ground the engine to the frame, and the cab to the frame. More ground straps in any case.
A new stock firewall to taillights harness is cheap (or so I thought til I searched) and a good idea since it lives in the weather.

https://www.brotherstrucks.com/67-72...tinfo/GSK6772/
http://sokyclassics.com/product.php?section=1000984

[Hubscrub]

Here is a good ground strap thread. htthttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php%3Ft%3D422234&ved=2ahUKEwiPiZTA-ODbAhUDXawKHanYCzcQFjAKegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw0tb0c6Zd1nWbSIiDUBohZh

[firedemon]

I was getting poor contact from the housing to the bed even though the bed was getting good ground to frame so I cleaned the housing and soldered a 16 guage wire directly to the housing and ran it down to the frame on both sides used those spiked washers and bolted it down haven't had any problems nice bright lights now

[jondancer]

Originally Posted by firedemon

I was getting poor contact from the housing to the bed even though the bed was getting good ground to frame so I cleaned the housing and soldered a 16 guage wire directly to the housing and ran it down to the frame on both sides used those spiked washers and bolted it down haven't had any problems nice bright lights now

If I were to do the same thing , I could run a small bolt and nut through the taillight housing instead of solder?

[Greenlee]

Originally Posted by RogerKoop

Do you have a wood floor. I had a truck with a wood floor and the bed was loose. Sitting in the driveway I did not have lights, but when we took off from a stop light they would come on. The bed was loosing ground because it was loose. All gm trucks use the bolts that hold it down to the frame for a ground circuit. To solve the problem I added a ground wire from the frame to the bed by the tail gate. This is also what takes place with your tail light housing. It must ground to the bed to make it work.

I had the same thing happen. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my tail llights wouldn’t work right after I replaced the wood in the bed. Finally, I put a couple of ground straps from the frame to the bed and the lights worked fine. Mine wouldn’t even work with the bed bolted down until I used a ground strap.

[slikside]

Originally Posted by jondancer

If I were to do the same thing , I could run a small bolt and nut through the taillight housing instead of solder?

Yes. I had a similar issue with one of my front blinker lights, and that's exactly what I did. Haven't had a problem since.

[Andy4639]

If it's a fleet side truck the brake light housings are screwed into the bed. Take and clean the back side of the housing and where it mates to the truck. If that doesn't help put a ring terminal on the screw before inserting it and tighten it down. Then hook the other end to the frame. you will have to do both sides.

[jondancer]

Originally Posted by jondancer

If I were to do the same thing , I could run a small bolt and nut through the taillight housing instead of solder?

I just did this and it fixed my problem. Thanks a lot guys