The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay No tail lights, brake lights & parking lights

Last night my tail lights, brake lights & parking lights stopped working, but the license plate light still works. The rear turn signals work only when the foot is off the brake, but they are dim. The signals in front are normal with the foot off the brake, but will not flash with the brakes applied. I thought I blew a fuse, because the brake and running lights are on the same fuse. However, when I checked it, the fuse looked OK. I suspect there is a short somewhere. Does anyone here have any ideas?

The vehicle is my 1966 C-10.

Most likely it's an open, not a short. Sounds like bad grounds to me. Make sure bed is grounded to frame, light housings are grounded to bed, light sockets are clean and grounded to housings.

Here's a neat idea I read about yesterday which might help solve your problem. If you suspect a bad ground as noted above. Put one lead (+) from a voltmeter at the point where a lamp is grounded, like it's socket base. Put other voltmeter lead (-)to battery post ground, you may need a piece of wire with clips to do this. Set voltmeter to read battery voltage and excite lamp (put brakes on, flip turn signal on, etc.). If the voltmeter reads anything but a wiggle you've got a bad ground somewhere. Good luck.

I found the cause of the problem, and made the necessary repairs. Thanks for your help.

OK, what did you find to be the problem? I want to put this lil' bit of info in the overstuffed file cabinet back in the basement of what's left of my mind for later use.

I suspected that the fuse was bad, but it looked OK visually. When I tried another fuse, the lights worked properly.