The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay tail light issues...

Installed new tail lights on new brackets only to find that you cannot mount both sides in the same manner. For instance, right side will only mount lense cover screw down and left side only lense cover screw up (or was it vise versa, you get the idea). So, I had to enlarge the wire pass through hole in the new (freshly painted, of course) right side bracket. Now the lamps are both at the bottom of the tail light assembly (or is it top, can't remember).

On to next problem. Wiring them up. So, with turn signals, you have four wires going to the lights: Common tail and stop, left and right turn (ground is through the assembly to the frame). Simple right? I wired common tail to left assembly and from there to right assembly. Turned on parking lights only to see two different brightness on each side. yes, wired tail light wire to black wire of assembly. Ugh! Went to bed.

Now I am thinking that because I notice a brightness difference BEFORE flipping one assembly over that might have had something to do with it. Will check it again this evening. Also, I suppose I could have a weak ground on the dim side. Will also check that with a jumper wire. I hate not having dedicated grounding wires...stupid design as you have to remove paint to make it work properly...then rust, then... ugh again!

OK so I am a little confused. Left tail light should have a clear lens at the bottom for the license plate. Right tail light will not have that lens. Tail light/running light should be the lower socket and Brake light should be the upper socket with the red lens off. You might have two lefts or two rights and turning one upside down will put the sockets in the wrong place. Tail/running lights are "dimmer" than the Brake lights. Wires will be "hot" to tail light left and right, "hot" to left brake and "hot" to right brake light. That is the 4 wires you have. Ground is through the bracket to the bed and a ground to the frame will complete the circuit. Of course this assumes that you have an integrated turn signal stat. I hope this helps

Look at the information in this Tech Tip for more help.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/turn_signal.htm

Love the way this site helps us

Steve:

Wiring is not the problem. I was mostly complaining about quality of repop parts. It is obvious that the left side tail light must be installed with clear license plate lense down. But, with repop right side bracket, you cannot mount the right side tail light assembly in the same orientation as the left. So, tail on bottom on left side and top on right side. had to mod the bracket to be able to flip the right side 180 degrees.

So, both tail lights wired to same circuit...one is brighter than the other. I think this is a grounding issue through all the new paint...so going to add a dedicated ground wire from tail light assembly stud to frame.

I tested both tail lights before installing and knew which wire was tail and which was stop. Brightest is always stop. Grounding issue seems the most obvious because when lights wired directly to small 12v battery, the brightness is the same.

I think you are on the right track

Yeah, sounds like a ground. Although it's painful, the best ground is achieved by grinding any paint or surface rust off before you attach your ground. Ask me how I learned that lesson

the factory provided the optional right side light "upside down", they just used a light with no license lense - Carters website has some info in their tech articles about tail lights and how GM cheaped out some AD years

Bill

Its all working now. I think if you don't mount both lights in same orientation (I.e. Lamp in bottom or top) then the appearance will be different. Incidentally, the white (brake light) wire from Classic Parts wiring harness, with turn signals, is not used. The left and right turn signal wires serve a dual purpose as brake and turn signal feed.

Even at their best, those lights are poor.


I upgraded to the 45 led lenses. Still at that the lights are set to low for tailgaters.


Dad use to have a second set of lights higher on the stake sides.
If you find one of these trucks that hasn't been touched since the 70's or 80's you'll mostly find it with the second set of tail lights.


I also am using the led brakelighter that mounts to the rear window in the cab.

My truck is a driver.