Please Help with Lights

[TigerDMD]

Before she went to the body shop. All my lights worked fine. I have her back now and Im having light issues. I hooked up my dome light Monday and it worked fine. Today the body shop installed my headlights and I have some issues. My dome light wont come on, none of my guage lights will work and my headlights will work on either high or low, if you hit the dimmer they cut off completely and one of those (high or low) doesn't work at all. Tell me where I should start to fix this.
Thanks.

[CaptRMW]

Tiger you likely have a lack of ground issue on at least some of those problems. Ground straps not reconnected or too much paint to get a good ground? A jumper wire from the neg. battery post to the various light buckets will be a good test to find the culprits. Best of luck and a nice looking truck, Roger

[gcburdic]

There was originally 5 ground straps on these trucks IIRC....but if ya use more it shouldn't be a problem

[cdowns]

for each and every light bulb to function properly it needs a good solid path for grounding

unlike boating in electrical work running aground is good

[TigerDMD]

Okay - need more help:
My headlights are good - I checked the grounds and made sure all connections were good. They are working properly now.
I still have no dome or gauge lights and my blinkers will work, but brake lights and my taillights don't come on with my lights??
Thoughts??

[Shyguy]

As stated before it could be a ground problem.

I think orginally there were two ground wires from the engine to the cab, a ground wire from the battery to the radiator support, a ground wire from the frame to the bed and I probably forgot some.

When I get done with my build it will have 8 ground wires, I hate chasing electrical problems.

[cdowns]

each and every lightbulb needs to b grounded not just a matter of 6 or 8 random cables here and there// until that concept is grasped you will not succeed// the light bucket holders need bright shiny metal to metal contact with the bed where they mount coated lightly with dielectric grease for better clonger lasting contact

[Shyguy]

Originally Posted by cdowns

each and every lightbulb needs to b grounded not just a matter of 6 or 8 random cables here and there// until that concept is grasped you will not succeed// the light bucket holders need bright shiny metal to metal contact with the bed where they mount coated lightly with dielectric grease for better clonger lasting contact

I was wondering if you would post. You always make good points on how to get rid of electrical gremlins.

I will try to remember your words when I start doing electrical work on my truck. The dielectric grease is something that I would have probably forgot for sure. In the past I have used Vaseline when I was working with wiring on trailers because I seem to always have it in my garage of course along with plenty of bandaids, lol.

[davepl]

To eliminate the headlight and dimmer switches, jumper 12V from the battery to first the green wire of one of the headlights (ideally while still connected, go to the back of the connector) and then the brown.

I forget which is which but one is high beam and the other is low beam. They're all interconnected so I imagine when you've got the low beams energized that way everything except the brake lights and high beams should be on, including the park lights and tail lights.

If they all work that way but not otherwise, there's probably something amiss with your headlight switch or possibly the dimmer switch. But as others have said, all your grounds need to be functioning properly for any individual bulb to work; each bulb needs its own path to ground somehow.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by TigerDMD

Okay - need more help:
My headlights are good - I checked the grounds and made sure all connections were good. They are working properly now.
I still have no dome or gauge lights and my blinkers will work, but brake lights and my taillights don't come on with my lights??
Thoughts??

As stated by everyone it's probably a grounding issue. I've been through similar issues and so have a lot of others. I installed about 4 ground straps and new battery cables I bought at local auto parts store to solve my problem.

The idea is to have a good clear path back to negative ground on the battery.
1. I placed one toward the back of the bed to frame.
2. From bottom of the cab to the frame.
3. Replace the one on the back of the engine to cab.
4. And the last one from radiator support to frame or directly to neg post like I did.

One other issue I had the other day is one of my blinkers was not working. I immediately thought it was the bulb so I bought one. When I checked the bulb, I found it was good. It was getting voltage but still no light. I figured the bulb socket was corroded so I cleaned and sanded all the contacts. Still no light. Then I found that the actual socket hole in the metal housing was coated with grime. I sanded it and coated it with dielectric and lights worked.

[TigerDMD]

Thanks guys - here's a brief update. I had a bad fuse :0
I replaced the fuses and my gauge lights and dome light are good now.
Headlights are good.
I briefly had taillights and blinkers, but no brake lights.
I was checking my lights and harnesses and somehow lost taillights again.
So, everything is working except my tail lights (they don't come on with my light switch) and brake lights (I do have R & L blinkers though)

Could it still be poor grounding? I'm a novice with all of this and its pretty frustrating.

[TigerDMD]

Well - I finally have everything working. It appears I had a bad brake light switch. I put a new one in and everything works like it should. Thanks for all the help.
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