Okay..here's the deal. I had both of my real lights working but only one of my brake lights (right) . (Bulbs ok).. I worked on the horn and fixed the ground wire. Then I had both brake lights working but only the left light.I took it to the shop to get the speedometer cable worked on (A story in in itself) and now I have both rear lights but no brake lights.

Any easy way to find which ground is bad?

 

I had some random problems with lights until I ran a separate ground wire from each tail light housing to the frame. Especially a problem if you've recently painted everything. For what it's worth.....this worked for me.
Tim

 

It's almost always the grounds and connections. Clean all the connections. You just have to be methodical and trace back to the source on all the wiring to fix this kind of problem. On my 56 I finally gave up and replaced the wire harness altogether. I had a lot of dried up insulation in addition to poor connections. So, what wasn't connected was shorting out on the frame! Everything works great now.

 

Yeah...mine was recently painted (last year)... I will have to try separate grounds...and Plastic. jim

 

Update....I have continually checked each ground but still must be missing something. Lights for brakes not working although rear lights are. I have another problem with the horn because of all my monkeying around.

Keeps blaring unless I unhook it. On the horn button in the steering wheel tell me if I have this right. (1 I have the support, spring and the contact. The wire comes up through the contact with the insulator resting on the contact. The button spring is pushing down on the insulator/metal **** and the horn button on top. It would seem to me that the button spring is always in contact since the button is pushing it down when installed. What gives? jim

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 08-Aug-02 AT 09:51 PM (EST)]>Update....I have continually checked each ground but still must be
>missing something. Lights for brakes not working although rear
>lights are. I have another problem with the horn because of all my
>monkeying around.
>Keeps blaring unless I unhook it. On the horn button in the
>steering wheel tell me if I have this right. (1 I have the support,
>spring and the contact. The wire comes up through the contact with
>the insulator resting on the contact. The button spring is pushing
>down on the insulator/metal **** and the horn button on top. It
>would seem to me that the button spring is always in contact since
>the button is pushing it down when installed. What gives? jim


Just put my restored steering column together not an hour ago. Here's some pictures of the correct order (I hope).

You are right that the center of the multi-arm disk is always in contact with the center post on the end of the wire. When you push on the horn the outer ring on the multi-arm disk gets pressed against the copper-plated contact that the center wire comes through. This completes the circuit - center wire to center of multi-arm disk to edge of multi-arm disk to copper-plated contact disk which is grounded. From the diagram it looks like the wire coming up the center of the column is hot through the horn and if you ground it the horn goes off. If you have that multi-arm disk in the wrong way I think you'll get a continuous contact but I'm not absolutely sure.

One other point - my 1956 shop manual does NOT show the coil spring I have installed under the horn button in the photos below. The spring was in there when I disassembled the unit and it seems to work properly with the coil spring in place. Maybe it's there to keep things from rattling around or maybe a previous owner found that the additional force eliminated intermittent contact at the center terminal - I really don't know but it does seem to work with it in there.

George


https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=7335&.jpg

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=7336&.jpg

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=7337&.jpg

 

Wow! Excellent information and pics. thanks, that might clear some things up. I am thinking if I solve my horn problem, I might also solve my brake problem since grounding comes into play on both. I will go down to the auto store and get a little spring to see if tht helps. Right now I have what you have minus the spring under the horn button. The horn always goes off when I ground it....so I need to reverse that process. I'll post back later to see if that works. Thanks jim

 

Brake wiring:
I separated the brake curcuit entirely. I used a separate fuse and ran it as it's own curcuit. I did this with each system. Many curcuits are tied together in these old trucks making troubleshooting more difficult. I ran all new wires to each location and fused each curcuit separately. I think this while more time consuming is much more desirable in the long run.

Autozone stocks the brake light switch for about $6 and then just run a closed loop fron switch to brake light (normally this mean powering both light elements in a dual filiment bulb) and returning to the battery distribution. I then separately power the more dim filiment as running lights. I separate the turn signal to a differing bulb entirely and now your running lights, Turn signals, and Brake lights are separate and very easy to troubleshoot now!

 

You're so right. One is always tied to something else. Very frustrating. You did a wise thing by each being on a separate circuit...

 

>Brake wiring:
>I separated the brake curcuit entirely. I used a separate
>fuse and ran it as it's own curcuit. I did this with each
>system. Many curcuits are tied together in these old trucks
>making troubleshooting more difficult. I ran all new wires
>to each location and fused each curcuit separately. I think
>this while more time consuming is much more desirable in the
>long run.
>
>Autozone stocks the brake light switch for about $6 and then
>just run a closed loop fron switch to brake light (normally
>this mean powering both light elements in a dual filiment
>bulb) and returning to the battery distribution. I then
>separately power the more dim filiment as running lights. I
>separate the turn signal to a differing bulb entirely and
>now your running lights, Turn signals, and Brake lights are
>separate and very easy to troubleshoot now!
>
so how many light fixtures are on each side of the vehicle???

are all the bulbs (I counted 3) in the same fixture?

the reason the brake lights go thru the turn switch, is that when you have the turn signal on, and you apply the brakes, the other brake lite will lite, while the turn signal flashs. ( for example, signal for a right turn, the right lite flashes, and the left lite will light). if you have alll the bulbs in the same fixture, it would be real hard to see the blinking lite with the brakes applied.

 

I installed separate Amber turn signals. Again while more time consuming it is not difficult and buying a good quality signal adds to the look of your truck. I choose Beehive lights.