Ok guys, I finally got back to this part of the truck. Thanks for your earlier responses and your patience. The problem was that the wires were crossed as many of you suggested. The new pigtail wires had one orange wire and one black. It turns out the correct connections are:
1. the new orange wire to go to the old black wire
2. the new black wire goes to the old white wire.
Now everything works as it should. I installed an extra ground strap from the fleetside bed to the frame just for the heck of. I did this before I reversed the wires to their correct position. It made no difference and I still had the same problem. Once I reversed the wires, bingo! But heck, since I ordered a nice ground strap, figured I might as well use it.
Thanks to all of you for your help. It is greatly appreciated. I've been doing tons of mechanical work on this truck and will post some photos in the near future.
James
