Taillamps

[chevyhed53]

OK, friends: Try to follow this one, and I appreciate any suggestions.
Got new tail lamp units and correct brackets for my '56 stepside. Tail light housings from Eckler's, the brackets from Jim Carter.
Tested to see which wire (black or white) from the unit goes to which wire on my Haywire setup. So far, so good.
Got everything hooked up--brackets nicely bolted to the truck, taillamps wired up correctly--and, of course, all I get is a very dim flash on the turn signals and flashers and NOTHING on my tail lights.
OK. I hook up the test light and turns out the whole housing is hot--everywhere I touch on the housing when the headlight switch is on is powered. So, I run a ground wire from each unit--from one stud on each unit to a nice spot--rubbed it clean--on the bumper brackets. That cured the hot-all-the-time issue, but not the basic no-taillights issue.
Then, almost by accident, I laid my test light--which was grounded to the tailpipe--from the socket (I obviously had the lens off) to the small bracket where the lens screws in, and voila! The lights go on.
So, I obviously have a ground issue, but how do I solve it? It appears the housing still isn't properly grounded, but it also seems like the socket isn't properly grounded to the housing!
Sorry this is as long as War and Peace, but it's been a weird day.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
sr

[OKGMC4]

Is it possible the stud you grounded to isn't touching a bare spot on the housing causing a bad ground? The screw was obviously well secured to bare metal. I had to use a flat blade on my housings and scrape a good spot to ground to. I ran the wire to the frame rail and used a self tapping screw and they work fine.

[chevyhed53]

Thanks. Yes, my guess is I'll have to redo all the grounds, and scrape down to bare metal.

[chevyhed53]

The grounds are all good. I'm just going to go ahead and run a wire from the socket to the screw terminal and call it good! I talked to a guy at Summit Racing who had a '59 Ford truck with exactly the same problem and he ended up just running a wire.
Interesting that the socket piece on the taillamp housing from Eckler's is plastic, not metal. I wonder whether that cheapo shortcut is actually the problem--that the socket is not making a good ground connection to the housing.
I know all the resto houses--Classic Industries, Eckler's, LMC, Brothers, etc.--buy from the same suppliers, but I have to wonder whether there isn't a better quality unit out there someplace.

[booger1949]

whats bad chevyhed is most of them big companys dont have a quality control unit to even no what they have is junk r any good. but i would call them an let them no about that issue so maybe they will check into it

[chevyhed53]

Yeah, I will.

[Maximus]

I had a similar problem with my license plate bracket/light. The bolt holes that mounted to my bracket to the bed were powder coated, had to score the finish with a scribe to get bare metal to contact the bolt, grounding to the bed. you could also try those "gear" shaped washers that help grab into the finishes, they may allow the ground to complete

[chevyhed53]

Thanks. I went ahead and ran a ground strap from the bottom of the bed to the frame, just in case, but I think I may have identified the problem (if not the solution). My Haywire harness has a circuit for a third brake light. I don't have a third brake light, and I think that circuit may be open.

[chevyhed53]

OK. I removed the third brake light circuit--it was wired very badly into the steering column headlamp lead and was grounded to the light bracket itself. That got me brake lights!
So, now I have grounded the housings, grounded the bed to the frame and got rid of an open circuit. I now have brake lights, turn signals, flashers--but no tail lights!! Going nuts. So, my latest question: Should the headlight switch be hot all the time? When I put my test light to it I get juice at every location on it. Is it possible there is a ground issue at the switch?
Thanks for any suggestions!

[Groyd]

I found a lot of good info on here. It may not apply at all to your situation, but there is a section on "electrical gremlins" that may help.

http://www.how-to-build-hotrods.com/hot-rod-wiring.html

Good Luck!

[chevyhed53]

Thanks! I'll take a look.

[Maximus]

using a 3rd brake light usually doesnt create a good situation with the turn signal for that side....

you say the lights are dim, does the wire at the light post have 12 volts?

it sounds like just a simple ground issue as you already were diagnosing...
I hate to ask a simple question but i am just trying to clear things up, if your hot wire is working fine have you tried to hook the + of the volt meter to the tail light hot, and then put your ground on the socket, then the housing, then the bracket, then the frame? if you check each spot, in a perfect world the ground should show the same 12 voltage everwhere that a "ground" is... you may find that your not getting a ground at the socket, but are at the housing... only to find out that maybe paint around the housing is not allowing a ground to flow through to the socket? again, if you already tried this i'm sorry for being repetitive...

when I hooked my ground to my frame, i had a layer of red-oxide primer that killed the ground, had to score the crap out of the contact between the frame and the contact ground wire.

Also... if its a ground issue with the tail light housing then the 3rd light wire wont be any different...

[Maximus]

Ahh I didn't read your #9 post stating that you have already moved on to a different issue... Ill re-read it and if i can give you anything to try ill let you know....

[chevyhed53]

Thanks. Gotta say this is driving me nuts. Also possible--in this world of badly made products--that Eckler's sent me two bad units. Unlikely, but not out of the question.

[Rude Dude]

Buy some used stock housing and go to auto parts store they sell the filament lamp mounts for trailer replacement and spot weld or pop rebbit them in. Problem Solved easy fix!