New member needs help !!!!!

[Blanco_53]

What's up guys .....just wanted to say I love the forum ....me and my dad bought a 60 shortbed last thursday and well the only problem seems to be the taillights.....when we pull the knob the front lights come on but the back doesn't ......and we checked the wire and there's "fire" going through it .....so what could it be????

[jonzcustomshop]

I fought this a while back...check for good grounds.
mine turned out to be a loose connection from the blinker harness under the column, but iI didn't have "fire" to the back...
so I would try running a jumper wire to ground the housing to a good ground on the frame..

[Indian113]

The tailights get there power thru the headlight switch,check and see if you have power coming out of it first. I had to replace my switch to power up my TL. If not you may have a short in the wires runnig to them. When I rewired the 64 I bought a 4 wire triler wire kit to run back to lights.

[Blanco_53]

And also when we turn on the signal lights they work but very slow......

[bobcostas]

Bad grounds. maybe several. in many places. In my Corvair we ended up sanding every terminal and replacing a socket or three before everything was making good contact. The circuitry for the lights and blinkers seem more like sorcery than engineering.

[CaptHutch66]

Just for "giggles".......once the light switch is pulled all the way out ease (leaving the headlights still on) the knob back in a little with someone watching in the rear and see if they come on.

[Bugeyev8]

clean the sockets...they get corroded really bad and the little springs that hold tension on the bulb contacts get loose

[jocko]

chased similar gremlins - ended up being the bulb sockets. the issue was that the ground contact (usually the 2 prongs on the outer part of the socket that touch the body part they pop into) were not contacting the metal where mounted sufficiently. Can either tweak them a little to make sure they contact the body better or do what jonscustomshop recommends with a ground wire - accomplishes the same thing.
had trouble in 2 of the 4 sockets - so almost pulled my hair out until got it all ironed out. good luck and congrats on the new truck - sounds great. even electrical gremlins are all part of the fun...

[apachedaddy]

With all of the above, but most likely the ground.... The rear lights have a bad problem with loosing there ground as the rust builds up or gets painted. I would just run a ground wire from the light bucket to the frame and it should slove your issues.

[fuzzinator]

I had the same problem. If you don't have bed wood or it's rotten the bed isn't grounding. My bed mounting bolts were loose. The tail lights ground through the housing to the bed. I ran two grounds from each side of the bed to the frame and that fixed it.

[Blanco_53]

thanks everyone, me and my dad finally got them going looks like it was a ground problem....we cleaned the housing and rewired the ground.....but thanks again ill see if i get some pictures up of the truck.