The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks Parking lights

'61 C20: Bought OEM light switch to replace bad one that didn't work at all. The parking lights work fine, but the front ones go off when you pull switch out for headlights. Is that normal?

Yup, it's perfectly normal.

Thanks!

Isn't there a trick to wiring those so they stay on when the headlights are on?

Here's one solution:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=361491

Both work I did the second one FriedGreentmater had. That way they r always on I also did one off the number 5 tail light balde so I can have just parking lights wiht no headlights.

Excellent. Thanks Markeb and all for the links.

I had a problem show up on my 1960 1/2t. When I first started driving it,all my lights worked normally as expected.It passed state inspection. Some time later,I noticed my tail lights worked as parking lamps, but went out when the headlights were turned on.
Being smart like I am, I looked at the wiring diagram and concluded that the only way this could happen had to be the result of a contact failure inside the light switch. No big problem, I ordered and replaced the light switch. Guess what.. I still had the same problem.
I could see no way to fix the problem other than to add a 12v relay by tapping into wiring under the dash. I wired the relay to energize from the light switch feed to the dimmer switch, applying power to the single wire feeding both tail lights. I still have no idea what happened to cause the problem.
meansam

meansam,
I have led's tail/brake lights on my 66, the brake lights would work as well as the turn signals on both sides, until I turned on the headlights. I would lose one (Not necessarily the same one) brake lights when applied. The turn signals would still work properly. Turned out it was a ground problem, following the circuit back thru the front lamps. I added ground straps everywhere, engine to body,(I forgot to replace) engine to frame, frame to bed. Seemed to take care of my problem

I agree with taclem based on first hand experience....

My grandfather had a '72 C20 that my dad had given to him. (Lived in Ohio back then and the road salt ate the body off this truck.)

When the turn signal was on all the lights (tail lamps and side marker lights) would flash, not real bright, but they would flash.

I took a wire, stripped the insulations off, and touched the bumper with the one end and the tailight housing with the other end. Viola! that fixed it.

We took each of the tail lamp assemblies off and hard wired a pigtail from the housing to the trucks frame, aka made our own ground straps.

It fixed the problem.

Since then whenever I have an electrical glitch / gremlin the first thing I do is run a temporary ground wire to see if it fixes the problem.

John