wiring tail light problems
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wiring tail light problems
I have a 1973 FORD F100 custom 4x4
It has been modded A few times I have no idea what is original and whats not I got it as a project and daily driver.
Rite now I cant get my brake lights to light up when I hit the pedal running lights work just fine but when I press the brake pedal my dash lights will light up instead of the brake lights?? and the brake lights used to work when I got the truck. I dont have the oem dash its all custom gauges.
It has been modded A few times I have no idea what is original and whats not I got it as a project and daily driver.
Rite now I cant get my brake lights to light up when I hit the pedal running lights work just fine but when I press the brake pedal my dash lights will light up instead of the brake lights?? and the brake lights used to work when I got the truck. I dont have the oem dash its all custom gauges.
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That sux. First step with electrical is check all your grounds. You should have one right behind each taillight and one behind your dash. After that, grab your chilton's book and us the wiring diagram and an ohmmeter to sort it out. I had a problem with my blinkers. They wouldn't blink when the headlight switch was on. The indicators on the dash would half light and not blink, and the outside wouldn't blink at all. Ended up being a bad headlight switch. The point of that is the problem is not always where you would first think. So check your grounds and then ohm it out. Still haven't gotten my back up lights to work btw. 
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With your back up lights I had a truck do the same and I just hard wired some fog lamps to a switch and is what I will do with this truck as well you get so much more light from the fog lamps then the oem ones or if you want to use the stock back up lights its the same thing. toggle switch wire lights and you have back up lights 
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I was having similar issues. Found out that the previous owner had slid the trailer wiring harness up between the rear crossmember and the fuel tank. It had rubbed off the insulation and the wires were shorting out on the frame. Moved the wires and taped off the bare spots, and now I have tail lights. Reverse still don't light up, but that is probably a separate issue.
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I have a 1973 FORD F100 custom 4x4
It has been modded A few times I have no idea what is original and whats not I got it as a project and daily driver.
Rite now I cant get my brake lights to light up when I hit the pedal running lights work just fine but when I press the brake pedal my dash lights will light up instead of the brake lights?? and the brake lights used to work when I got the truck. I dont have the oem dash its all custom gauges.
It has been modded A few times I have no idea what is original and whats not I got it as a project and daily driver.
Rite now I cant get my brake lights to light up when I hit the pedal running lights work just fine but when I press the brake pedal my dash lights will light up instead of the brake lights?? and the brake lights used to work when I got the truck. I dont have the oem dash its all custom gauges.
GS, the most common and first place I would look is under the dash behind the brake pedal arm. There is a $5 button that disengages when you dpress the pedal. These buttons work in revers of most buttons and turn the brake lights on when you depress the pedal and shut them off when the pedal comes back up and presses the button again.
See if the button is open and not stuck in. check that it's working properly before you start venturing into wireing. If the button is working then the issue is in the wireing, grounding or somthing else. Good luck and I hope it's the button because that's an easy one.
Tell when you find the problem what it was. Could help a lot of others as well.
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I got back in there today and had a friend come over and help me out some and he will be returning tomorrow to continue what we started. I checked the stop light switch under the dash first I have had then go out before and was hoping that was the case this time but it was not much to my disappointment because that would have been much easyer to deal with I love to just plug and play but i wont get to this time.
I got a new fuse box and some wire and a big pack of bus fuses so tomorrow its me the wire cutters, tape, caps, wire, fuses and a lot of four letter words till me and that truck can come to some sort of a middle ground lol.
I got a new fuse box and some wire and a big pack of bus fuses so tomorrow its me the wire cutters, tape, caps, wire, fuses and a lot of four letter words till me and that truck can come to some sort of a middle ground lol.
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with your reverse lights i have had them go out on a lot of my other trucks. Just find a constant hot wire throw in a switch run some wires to the back hook up the oem stuff or do what i did and put in some nice low profile fog lamps so you have light to back up with. there also nice for backing the truck up to the river and having light for fishing loading a trailer or that pesky tailgate driver that wont get off your butt 
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You know they are that simple somtimes however it's not knowing what the problem is that we all spend our time on.........
Once we find it we have that dumb look on our face like "I wish I checked that first".
I know what your saying. I hate the electrical stuff on these old trucks. It's way more complicated than an engine. Although I only have a few electric problems myself I wish I could just replace the entire wireing with a new up to date fuse box. The past owner on mine has wires stuck (jammed in) uder the fuses themselves. I'm afraid if one falls out I might spend 2 days chasing the problem before I find out it was that line in the fuse box.
Good luck.
Once we find it we have that dumb look on our face like "I wish I checked that first".
I know what your saying. I hate the electrical stuff on these old trucks. It's way more complicated than an engine. Although I only have a few electric problems myself I wish I could just replace the entire wireing with a new up to date fuse box. The past owner on mine has wires stuck (jammed in) uder the fuses themselves. I'm afraid if one falls out I might spend 2 days chasing the problem before I find out it was that line in the fuse box.
Good luck.
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lol there is a wire jammed in one of my fuses as well. dont really know what it does?
the wiring in my truck is a wire harness from late 70s or early 80s model I have no idea I just know its not the original by no means. the fuse box I got at orielys for 8 bucks the wire from auto zone red and black 100ft 20$ wire kit with connectors and clamps 20$ fed up with the rigged up wiring and now going to pull and clip to my hearts content (PRICELESS)
the wiring in my truck is a wire harness from late 70s or early 80s model I have no idea I just know its not the original by no means. the fuse box I got at orielys for 8 bucks the wire from auto zone red and black 100ft 20$ wire kit with connectors and clamps 20$ fed up with the rigged up wiring and now going to pull and clip to my hearts content (PRICELESS)
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with your reverse lights i have had them go out on a lot of my other trucks. Just find a constant hot wire throw in a switch run some wires to the back hook up the oem stuff or do what i did and put in some nice low profile fog lamps so you have light to back up with. there also nice for backing the truck up to the river and having light for fishing loading a trailer or that pesky tailgate driver that wont get off your butt
I saw post on an old Camper Special on here (my 69 was a camper special with a 390) and it had a built in generator in the engine capartment. Wouldent that be cool. Pick up one of those old bad boys and put it in. Bet it draws right from the fuel line too.
That said I hate the noise, especually fishing but you could add one in for battery storage (second one) and draw on that for light so you have your primary to start the truck. A good day fishing could suck if you battery was dead when you were ready to leave. Were the heck do you fish in the night time anyway. What state you in?
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Im in Alabama lol rite on the border next to Georgia along the Chattahoochee river. I took out the original alternator and put in a beefier one along with a battery strong enoff for a tractor lol. but a small generator would be real sweet to run the lights with. the fuse box I got is small it only supports six fusses with is better then the five glass tube one that is in ol betty now. I wonder if you could hook up two of these six fuse fuse boxes to run said kc lights fog lamps winch etc?
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Electrical is all math. I'm sure you can provided you check the amps and current the alternator and battery can put out. It's chineese to me however Current is flow like a river. The more current you have the more flow and Amps are a whole other thing. That said you could easily add as many as you want you just need some high school geek to run the math. Or one of those "rain man" wierdos at the parts shop that can't tie his shoes but could calculate the distance to mars on dec, 19th at 12:45pm in ten seconds.
Us simple working guys are too stupid......... But it can be done real easy. Just find someone who knows what there doing. Once the math is done you can add Ipods, lights, NASA computers, TV's and all kinds of stuff to distract you from the road. LOL
Just like the Mexicans who light up the truck like Kennedy Airport.........
OK, now I have lost my mind. Nothing against Mexicans it's just us white guys don't do that stuff..........
Us simple working guys are too stupid......... But it can be done real easy. Just find someone who knows what there doing. Once the math is done you can add Ipods, lights, NASA computers, TV's and all kinds of stuff to distract you from the road. LOL
Just like the Mexicans who light up the truck like Kennedy Airport.........
OK, now I have lost my mind. Nothing against Mexicans it's just us white guys don't do that stuff..........
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Yeah I used to set up car stereos and we would hook up two alternators just so one would power the radio in the truck or car I think if I hook up a extra fuse box id use it for fog lamps radio you know the extras and just have one that did all the main electrical for the truck. lol about the Mexican trucks there is one here in town that is ridiculous. It reminds me of pea***** they put on a big show waving there pretty feathers around and doing a little dance. But there feathers are tons of chrome, lights and anything fuzzy lol more power to them if thats what they want. I want a strong mud slingin loud get out of my way or I will go over you truck 
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Oh, did I mention Watts and Volts.........like I said find someone who understands the math.
One can kill you but the other one can't Makes you wonder before you grab somthing.
Amps, Wats, Current, Volts............. like I said, it even sounds Chineese. It's like a foriegn language to me. I can't spell worth a dam......However could build the heck out of a house. Just don't like electrical. We don't get along much. My diagnosis of electrcial problems is "stick another fues in real fast to see if it blows again"
I lost intrest when y friend showed me current flowing through a wooden pole. Yes, wood. How the heck can you figure that out. What I found out on these trucks is 80% of the electrical problems are grounding issues. Couple that with chapped and dry rotted lines that I have no idea where they go or do and I'm lost. I think they should design trucks with two main lines. One + the other - and hook everything up to them. It all starts at the battery why do we have to confuse it all with these harnesses going all over the place.
One can kill you but the other one can't Makes you wonder before you grab somthing.
Amps, Wats, Current, Volts............. like I said, it even sounds Chineese. It's like a foriegn language to me. I can't spell worth a dam......However could build the heck out of a house. Just don't like electrical. We don't get along much. My diagnosis of electrcial problems is "stick another fues in real fast to see if it blows again"
I lost intrest when y friend showed me current flowing through a wooden pole. Yes, wood. How the heck can you figure that out. What I found out on these trucks is 80% of the electrical problems are grounding issues. Couple that with chapped and dry rotted lines that I have no idea where they go or do and I'm lost. I think they should design trucks with two main lines. One + the other - and hook everything up to them. It all starts at the battery why do we have to confuse it all with these harnesses going all over the place.
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Can't beat these old trucks and cars. Try working on the electrcial system in these new cars. HA. you stand a better chance at see GOD.
I had an Avelanch for 5 years. The dam seat warmers would turn on without me pushing the button. I would shut them off and find them back on again 2 minutes later. The only way they would stop is my turning the truck off for a few minutes and restarting it again. It had so many electrcial problems and I bought it brand new. Loved the ride and inside however hated the problems these gremlins make inside the of a simple mechanical vehicle.
Ok, got to head to bed.......Later dude!