Parking lights , taillights

[Painter D]

Quick question. Do the taillights have to be hooked up for the parking lights to work? (To complete the circuit)

[ChevLoRay]

I would think not. After all, if a tail light bulb burns out, does that keep a parking light from working?

Turn signal bulbs are different, in that the combined resistance offered by the incandescent bulbs serve as a load on the heater portion of the turn signal flasher. So, when one of the T/S bulbs burn out, the remaining bulb will flash at a faster rate....unless you have an electronic flasher.

But, the tail lights and parking lights don't know the other even exists.

[Longhorn Man]

actually, the turn signals only blink faster since the late 80's... old stuff like these will eitherr not blink at all, or blink very very slow.
Back to the OP's question though, the parking lights will work if it is just the front hooked oup, or just the rear hooked up.
Remember though, if this is a 67 that you are working on, the front parking lights go out when the headlights go on.

[Painter D]

Thans for the quick responses. I'm having other elec. problems as well just thought this might help me diagnose what's going on. (I'm stumped) I'm working on a 69 BTW.

[Longhorn Man]

what all is going on? We can help narrow it down at a minimum

[Painter D]

Well, since you asked. My parking lights won't come on at all ,unless I jump wire them (from firewall plug) then they'll come on. Also, when I pull the headlight switch to the position where only the parking lights, and taillights should come on, the headlights come on. My hi-beam indicator isn't working at all, and when I turn the lights on ,my gas guage goes all the way to empty. I'll try grounding the instrument panel itself ,as suggested ,and see what happens. I replaced the headlight switch thinking it was the culprit ,but no luck there either. There's no blown fuses or anything else obvious that I can find. I'm stumped. Any suggestions would be great at this point. The bed is off of the truck right now , that is why I was thinking maybe the taillights had to be hooked up to complete the circuit. It doesn't sound like that matters though.

[jrb71c20]

I'd like to know too. So far all I think of is to call in an exorcist. The headlights don't turn 360's on their own do they?

[Painter D]

Problem solved. It was a bad ground on the parking lights. I didn't realize the parking lights ground through the housing they mount in. (I had them out) Grounding the instrument cluster fixed the gas guage ,and hi-beam indicator problem. THANKS FOR THE HELP!