Taillight Issue

[c10boob]

My taillights and brake lights no longer work, but both turn signals and hazard lights/emergency flashers still do.

I have checked the fuse, it's good. What other things could cause this?

(Possible hint: I installed a relay for my hazard lights, as there was not one on the fuse box when I bought it. In doing so, I detached the ignition wire from the fuse box accidentally, so I put it back, and later noticed an orange wire hanging with no connector on the end. There is no connector that has fallen off or become detached from the orange wire, it was just never there. The way the wire hangs it almost looks like the previous owner just shoved it into the connector with the ignition wire, but that doesn't make sense to me.)

[VetteVet]

That's your problem. The orange wire goes to the brake light switch and the headlight switch. It connects to the fuse panel as shown in this diagram.



Then it goes to the head light switch as shown in this diagram.



This is the back of the fuse panel and the orange wire attaches like the rest. If only one orange wire is loose then the dome light might still work. You might be able to solder it back to the rivet connection.

[c10boob]

THANK YOU! Seems simple enough. I'll reconnect it when the sun rises again!

[c10boob]

I should have also asked: If I hook up the orange wire for my taillights to the ignition wire will that also work for the time being?

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by c10boob

I should have also asked: If I hook up the orange wire for my taillights to the ignition wire will that also work for the time being?

It would but they are designed to work with the key off so you wouldn't have any lights unless the key was on and you wouldn't want that without the engine running. Also I wouldn't want to connect them to an ignition power source. The ignition unfused terminal on the fuse panel would be a better place except it has no fuse in it's circuit so you might want an inline fuse in the orange wire for that.

The end of the stop/turn/tail fuse on the fuse panel would be the best place if you can make a good connection. I have to ask if the orange wire that's loose is not a hot wire and if so then you'd need to connect it to the end of the fuse that's cold when the fuse is out so that the orange wire is fused.

[c10boob]

I connected it the the ignition unfused terminal and placed an inline fuse on the wire, which made my taillights work but not my brake lights.

I'll try hooking it to the stop/turn/tail fuse tomorrow.

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by c10boob

I connected it the the ignition unfused terminal and placed an inline fuse on the wire, which made my taillights work but not my brake lights.

I'll try hooking it to the stop/turn/tail fuse tomorrow.

That tells me that you are not getting a hot feed to the stop/turn/tail fuse since only one leg of the orange wire feed works. Check for 12 volts on the fuse and if you get nothing on either end then you'll need to find out why. Your other orange wires may be off as well. If you get no voltage on either end of the fuse then try running a short jumper from the ign-unfused terminal to the fuse and plug the orange wire to the end of it and see if the brakes and tails work.
Looking at the diagrams I posted above if you can find the three orange wires and trace them, you will see that they go to the headlight switch for the tail lights, to the stop light switch for the brakes, and to the dome light. The turn lights operate with the brake lights and the flasher wire to the turn signal switch but that is another circuit for discussion with another problem than yours.