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Help no taillights

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Old Dec 5, 2009 | 06:45 PM
  #1  
wmiller's Avatar
wmiller
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From: North East, MD
Help no taillights

The other day all my rear facing lights stopped just suddenly cut out. They started working a day later but stopped again and haven't worked for a week since. My dash and front facing all work. I tried splicing into my tool box lights with a switch to run them all but got alot of heat and burning smell so right now i am running just my box lights.

Where should i start looking for a short. I have no power on either trailer plug for marker lights, and no rear light. There must be a relay or fuse or something for the back since my front still work
 
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Old Dec 5, 2009 | 07:01 PM
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From: Chino Valley, Arizona
had a similar situation on a 95 it turned out to be the loom going under the air cleaner box, the rear light wiring goes forward before it goes to the rear of the truck! go figure! anyhow the air box chaffed the loom and shorted out the tail lights.
 
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Old Dec 5, 2009 | 10:17 PM
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From: Belair md
you have 0 rear lights? no markers, turn signal, brake,tag, or reverse lights? also no 3rd brake light? if so i have yet to find a common denominator on all of those circuits, they run different feeds and connectors. still thumbing through my schematics though
 
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Old Dec 6, 2009 | 12:16 AM
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From: Ashtabula
I had the same problem on my 02 F-350, took me a while to track down the broken wire. It ended up being in the area where the fuel fill pipe runs through the frame rail. It was a PIA but here is how I did it. Get under the truck (with the lights on) with a good 12 volt test light and start at the front, the wire loom is tucked up in the drivers side frame rail--open it up and start probing the wire (I think it was brown, but I can't remember for sure) about every foot or two. The break will be between the last place the test light lite up and the place than it does not light. Then locate the bad spot and repair, wrap it up good if it was caused by rubbing against other wires. Good luck.
 
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Old Dec 6, 2009 | 05:59 AM
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wmiller
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From: North East, MD
just the markers on rear are out. Break, turn and 3rd brake work. Does anyone have a schematic for the rear light?
 
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Old Dec 6, 2009 | 08:02 AM
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MLCinNCTX
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From: Whitewright, Tx
Originally Posted by wmiller
just the markers on rear are out. Break, turn and 3rd brake work. Does anyone have a schematic for the rear light?
Is the fuse good? If so, start at the back of the drivers side frame and discinnect the harness. Using either a test light or multi-meter see if you have power to the light circuit. If you have power your problem is between that connection and the lights, no need to go forward on the harness. If you have no power follow the harness to the next connection and test again.

If the fuse is blowing do the same test, dico at the end of the frame and replace fuse, if it does not blow the short is between the lights abd the connector. If it does blow follow the harness forward looking for damage .

You spoke of "box lights" are these lights tied to your marker lights? If so, I bet the problem is where they connect together.

You can google something like "troubleshooting tailights" and get several how-to articles on proper testing.

Here is the marker lights wiring diagram, could help with the color code. http://www.thedieselstop.com/faq/949...an/stjmain.htm (Thanks to Cuda Jim posting the link is a thread below on service manuals)

Good luck
 

Last edited by MLCinNCTX; Dec 6, 2009 at 08:09 AM. Reason: added link to wiring diagram
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