Tail light problems

[64c10HotRodder]

On my 64 c10 for some reason my tail lights don't work .I used a LED light and touched the fuse and it worked. But no tail lights. Where should I start to fix this? My dash lights don't either but my headlights do.
Posted via Mobile Device

[dougf]

Pop the tail light covers off and take a look at the ground connection, take it off, clean and make sure it's touching bare metal, trace the wires back to fuse panel. 99% of the time it's a ground issue. Make sure your bed and cab are grounded good also with a grounding strap. Good luck!

[64c10HotRodder]

I'd just went out and looked around and my ground wire wasn't even grounded to anything . I stripped the wire grounded it and still nothing

[jtrichard]

check the clips (both ends) where the fuse snaps in for power if the fuse is not making continuity to the fuse holder then you wont have tail OR dash lights

[64c10HotRodder]

My blinkers aren't working either. I'm thinking i might just redo the wiring

[63burban]

Sounds like you have a bad fuse

[forestb]

I don't think this is your problem but you will run into this problem if you are using LED tail lights and front turn signals you will need to get a new blinker. The LED's don' draw enough power to get the old style working. I don't recall what the old style and new style are called maybe someone else can chime in. On my truck even with the new style blinker LED's will not work in my front turn signals only the rears.

[slepysal]

how is the rear harness connector ?

[64c10HotRodder]

The rear harness connector is pretty ruff . I did get one of the blinkers to work today but only one. I have the stock blinkers In it .Are you telling me LED blinkers are a bad idea? I would tag you in this post but I have no clue how to just started using this forum yesterday.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I'm not sure if a '64 is the same as my '63... but check the connection where the tail light harness plugs in at the firewall. You may need a helper push on the rubber connector from inside the firewall while you do the same from the outside. Mine worked its way loose.

[64c10HotRodder]

Originally Posted by Johnny_Lamebridge

I'm not sure if a '64 is the same as my '63... but check the connection where the tail light harness plugs in at the firewall. You may need a helper push on the rubber connector from inside the firewall while you do the same from the outside. Mine worked its way loose.

Actually there were 2 connectors and they were connected at all. Ones orange and ones white. On one of the 2 the connector was kinda tore up looked like it was chewed on. I'm not sure where which goes but I did plug them in. And I redid a little bit of the wiring but still nothing. I'm still blowing fuses. I think it's either I have the 2 connectors wrong or the wiring is messed up somewhere. Tomorrow I'm going to take the box off and redo the wiring .And if you know where are the correct locations for the 2 connectors on the firewall .I believe it's supposedt I go right above the brakes

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

64c10HotRodder, here's a couple pics. One shows the tail light harness plug from the outside of the firewall. Disregard the red wire, and the coiled line. The plug only has a 3-wire flat ribbon cable that runs down the frame to the rear. The 2nd pic shows the same 3-wire plug from the inside, under the dash. I guess if your truck has backup lights you'd have more wires. Mine doesn't. Check for a good connection here. i hope thats helpful.

[64c10HotRodder]

Well I went through and cut the wiring at the back and pulled it all the way through .Everything looked fine so I tested each wire and they all got power. So then the problem must be in the back so I looked through and realized there were 2 Brown wirea going into the tail light .I looked closet and realized they were different shades of brown. So I had the power as my ground and ground to power. So I switch it back the right way and I don't blow a fuse this time but the wires get ridiculously hot. Any idea why this happens now?

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Have a look at the wiring diagram here:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=378484

It shows the brown wire to each tail light (running lights), then a yellow wire to the left and dk green to the right (brake/turn lights)

There isn't any ground wire. The ground should be the tail light housing, the truck body. Check for rust causing a bad ground.

[par4tom]

excessive heat means there is a short. If you have traced the wires to the tail light buckets, one wire should go to each point, and the buckets should be grounded to the bed, and the bed should be grounded to the frame.

I forgot which color wire goes where so check out Johnny's wiring diagram.

Below is how I grounded the taillamp bucket (black wire)...be sure and scrape down to the metal surface on the bucket. The second picture is the grounding point on the bed crossbracket that drops off the back of the frame rails (furthest one back).

Two of the wires coming in are the grounds from each of the taillamp buckets and they are grounded to a clean metal surface on the bed. I think I used a 14 guauge wire from the taillamps.

The third wire is a 12 gauge and goes from the bed directly to a clean surface on the frame. Once this is done, you have the grounding issues resolved.

Tom

Oh...and if your still having problems, make sure you get the bulbs cleanly seated on the contacts on the tail lamps. After I did all of my grounding, I thought I had the problem solved only to find out that the tail lights were still acting squirly. Turns out, the bulbs weren't properly seated.

[64c10HotRodder]

Thanks guys .After looking at the diagrama and looking at the connectori realized that the third wire someone put in for something else so I capped that off. Then I sprayed some contact fluid on the buckets and put then back in and they work.But my right taillight is really dim .Replaced the bulb and it's still dim .I'm not to worried because I'm putting those LED one's in.

[64c10HotRodder]

You can see the third wire I was talking about . You can't see it butdin the connector you. An tell it wasn't stock like that .

[64c10HotRodder]

Here's the connector

[par4tom]

You're right, that definately doesn't look stock. PO probably was using that for a ground to the bucket or possibly a lead wire out to a trailer connector.

If you do have a voltage meter, you may want to check the contacts where they touch the points on the bulb to see if you have a 12 volt signal on the tail lights. Then check with the break light pedal pushed for 12 volt signal.

As I recall, I had one that stayed dim like yours and after about 1/2 hour of trouble shooting it was all due to how the bulb was seated on the contacts. Those lights are finicky!

Best,
Tom

[64c10HotRodder]

I think it's that contact. Just to get the buulb out I had to break it and then collapse it to get it out

[OldGMJon]

Originally Posted by 64c10HotRodder

Here's the connector

You have corrosion and rust action in there so grounding locations are going to be sketchy.
I would clean and buff those housings grounding surfaces and make sure the bulb seat isn't corroded or rusted out first.