Bought a 97 Ranger that has no tail lights. Bulbs and fuses are good. Front parking lights are working. Does anyone know what else can cause just the tail lights not to work? Thanks in advance.

 

cut in the wires from front to back?... bad back ground on rear?

To check wiring well, on the parking lights have to be unplugged or basically all the bulbs removed because the bulbs will show false readings as they keep circuits closed. Then double check power wires from rear to fuse box at relay and do similar checking for grounds. I will try to link a schematic to tail lights to further help. Brown colored is always Tail light and black is always ground on these...

 

Thanks, that is a big help on the color of the wires. Previous owner ran a wire from the left front parking light to the wiring harness at the rear. I am not sure if he wired it wrong or that his idea just didn't work, but every time I pushed the brake pedal with the key off the front parking lights would come on and the "left your lights on" alarm would sound. I have disconnected his handy work and am now trying to figure out how to repair it correctly. Tomorrow I plan to remove the fuse panel and the light switch and check for loose wires. The clerk at Oreiley's said it could be the headlight switch as it has separate wires from the switch to all four parking lights. That seems odd but I will see, I hope. Thanks again for your help.

 

I dont know if tyhe ranger has them but we are experiencing a problem with the tow lights on a f150. Turns out there are fuses in the system to check, also ther are fusable links in the electric system! On my 89 f250 I had a blown fusable link wire up by the battery thus no lights at the tow plug. not that this is your case but also something to look at. ford has a manual program to down load operator/owner manuals you can check for such as above.