1968 Tail light issues - how much is tied to other lights?

[admin]

So this post may be more for documenting because the question may answer itself as I continue reassembly.

But at the moment my rear tail lights work on hazards only. And with only hazards on, only my right taillight works. If I turn on hazards and either turn signal then both taillights blink. But with hazards off neither turn signals nor brake lights work.

So my question is how much of the rest of the electrical system has to be in place for the taillights to function properly?

Because at the moment I do not have the following installed: light switch, heater control, front turn signals, hood turn signals, front side marker lights, headlights or rear backup lights.

What I do have installed is the taillights, instrument cluster, brake pedal & switch and steering column w/ horn ring.

My guess is that at least one of these missing components is stopping my taillights from operating correctly, but I'm curious if anyone knows off the top of their head.

 

[speedy02]

Sounds like ground issues. I know you had issues pulling the sockets out did you clean them well before reinstalling? Also, The car has two flashers one for turn signals and the other for emergency flasher. Do you know if they are original or solid states? You will have to remove the cluster to access one of them.

 

[admin]

Both flashers are good. I swapped them for each other and both work. One is an Autolite and the other is a "Rounder". I assume the Rounder was a replacement, but it's definitely old and from before I bought the car. Kind of cool.

 

[admin]

Sounds like ground issues. I know you had issues pulling the sockets out did you clean them well before reinstalling?

It may be a ground issue, but when I reassembled the tail lights I cleaned all the sockets thoroughly and got all the contact springs to work again. I sanded out all the socket hole edges in the tail light housing as well as the outside of each socket where it friction fits into the housing, so that ground should be good. I made sure the ground wire that screws to each tail light housing was clean metal. And finally, the wiring harness ground wire in the trunk near the gas filler neck was sanded to bare metal and is solidly connected.

One thing I realized is that the headlight switch has to be installed before the brake lights work. Once I installed that I got brake lights about 80% of the time. Then I took the plug off the brake light switch, sanded down the two blade connections and reattached. This got the brake lights to work 100% of the time.

So now I have turn signals that work 100% and parking lights (rear only connected) work 100%.

My only remaining issue is my left tail light sometimes doesn't light when either the brakes or hazards are turned on. But I realized that I can "fix" that left light by putting just a bit of forward pressure on the turn signal stalk.

So it sounds like my turn signal switch in the steering column needs to be checked. Hopefully it's something I can tighten. As I recall it's a pain to replace this switch.