Still having problems. The taillights and rear side markers work occasionly but not like they should. They ficker on and off or don't come on at all. I tried running a ground to the left socket but all it did was make the tail light so bright that it makes it hard to see the turn signal flashing.
Just out of curiosity I put my test light clip on the frame and touched the other end to a bare spot on the bed. It lit up. Got to looking around and saw some flickering at metal to metal contact. There is a bracket on the left rear side of the bed where the license plate used to mount. It was barely touching the rear bumper brace and as the truck vibrated from the engine running, it was causing a spark where these two pieces were making contact. Every time they sparked the lights would flicker. If I pushed down on the bed the lights brighted up just like they did with the ground wire.
I figured there has to be a bare wire somewhere along the frame that is touching and causing the short. I tracked the wires along the frame paying close attention to where they went into each clip. Nothing. I couldn't find anything wrong.
My next thought was maybe one of the light sockets on the back was causing the problem so I unplugged each wire one by one and checked with the test light from frame to bed. After all wires were unplugged (no sockets hooked up), the test light still comes on. The test light only comes on with the headlight switch pulled to the on position. Headlight switch off, the test light goes off.
This has got me completely confused. I have no problem with any of the front lights. Headlights, parklights, turn signals and side markers all work fine. Just can't get the back lights to cooperate.
Any thoughts?
