I have a 1980 Ford F100 FlareSide with the Hanging tail lights.

I have figured out all the wires
Brown - Power
Orange - RH Turn
Green - LH turn
Black - Rear Lights

I put new tail lights and rewired everything, and now
When the lights are off
Brake lights work
Turn signals L and R work
Reverse Lights Work.

When I turn on the Head lights switch, I have power (checking with a light tester) on all 4 wires, and nothing works.

Has anyone seen this before?

Thanks,
Richard

 

Try grounding the casing of the light to the frame. I needed to do that to mine. I have an 86 step side.

 

Your off on your wiring. There is no "power" wire, there is LH turn, RH turn, Taillights and Ground. Black is your ground, thus if you have power to it you loose your ground. Thus Brown should be taillights.

It has been a while but I am pretty sure I am right. Those Hanging taillights use a ground wire because they don't ground through the body and brown is the universal color for taillights (see any wire loom for a trailer, white = ground, brown = tail, green/yellow = turns.

Hope this helps.

Kenny

 

You have to look at the wires very carefully. The black may be a black/pink, which would be the reverse lights. The other wires are not just plain orange and green, they have stripes on them also.

But, it sounds like you have everything correct, since they work with the headlights off. I am with the other poster though, the running lights are the brown wire. Do the running lights work when you turn the headlights on? If they do, then yes, you have a grounding problem, and that's why they don't work with the headlights on.

 

You are right. It is black/pink stripe wire.
The Orange and Green/yellow stripe (for LH and RH)

And flat Brown which is power when headlight turned on.

I got me a trailer 4 wire extender which I am going to use for my new wiring harness.

When I flip the headlight switch on dont get rear running lights but the front ones all work fine.

Grounding the case to the frame I get but the case to the lights are plastic. Should I just run a ground inside the light case (where there is a metal plate [which is where the 3 screw posts are attached to]) and then to the frame.
Inside my light casing there is a ground which is clipped into the metal plate. I screw these into the metal light hanger, I thought that would be enought to ground it though.

Thanks for the tips..

 

You should have 4 wires per taillight

Turn signal(yellow or green depending which side)

Running light, parking lams, etc(brown)

Back-up(black w pink tracer)

Ground(white)


Without the ground, you will be back feeding thru the unused wire(tring to find a ground) and get a dim bulb , no light condition, or other odd things.

Your taillight harness "should" have a ground wire w an eyelet on it that gets grounded to the frame

 

I actually have 3 wires per tail light.

Got the replacement part from o'reileys.

It has a red, white, and dark brown/purple wire.

The red is the back up lamp

and the white and brown/purple are for brakes, turn signal, and running lights.

 

I got everything working finally.
When I started the rear lighting wire from about the rear tire on was a birds nest. Here is some other research I did to assist me. Hope it will help someone else.

Truck Lighting Research

Ford always used brown for the taillights. Find that wire first. Do what mtflat said, and put a testlight on the brown, and pull the headlight switch out. If you get the testlight working correctly, then make sure the brown wire is wired correctly to the lights in the rear. It should go to a splice, were it splits up and goes to each taillight, and also to the license plate lights.

The brown wire should go to the dimmer of the two filaments in the rear bulbs(This was key). Also make sure the black wire is grounded to a good ground on the frame.

I would get this working first. Then you can move on to the turn/brake wires, and then the back-up wires.

I got the replacement hanging rear tail light at O'Rielys about 25 or so per side.

The first wire color is from the tail light assembly
The second wire color is the truck wire color

O’Rielys – Red wire – Black/pink (Backup Lights)
White wire – Orange or Green (LH and RH Signal & Brake Lights)
Brown/Purple wire – Power wire


I also got some trailer wire harness extenders to be my new wire plugs.
They had a 4 to 4 wire connector and a 2 wire to 2 wire connector.


Thanks to every one who helped, I appreciate it.

Richard

 

I dont understand how it is working with no ground

 

I discovered the ground when I replaced my taillight housings. The ground of the light sockets is connected to the 3 mounting studs on the back of the housing. These studs connect to the bracket that is bolted to the bed that is bolted to the frame. That's your ground. When I pulled my bed and painted the frame I lost my ground. I just ran another wire and made a separate ground.

 

If my memory serves me right I had to run a "ground" wire for mine. These beds for the flareside are mounted on wood blocks. Yes the have metal bolts that run thro metal parts of the bed. My bed was all rotted out and I just fabbed up some stuff to get it going. I had a heck of a time with mine. Took about 5 hrs to get it straightned out. Replaced lights, wires and had to figure out the wireing. Previous owners had it all cut up.

 

Exactly, Mine was cut up with 4 different trailer plugs. I pulled them out and soldered the wiring back original. But with the new wood blocks and several coats of paint on the frame there was no more ground.

It wasn't that hard fish a wire through and find a good ground. I actually soldered the wire inside the taillight.

 

I have a question, Where are your Backup lamps on the new lights?

 

On top. Did you get ones with no built in backup lights?

 

i am def sub to this! i need this help too! i am going through this now!