The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Things that make you go 'Hmmm'

I recently "fixed" my brake light issue by cleaning the switch and repairing a couple of broken wires.

Now - the right tail light is always on. Always -

The brakes lights are bright as are the tail lights when I pull the switch.

When I turn everything off there is a faint glow (not that faint as I'm running LED bulbs) from the right light.

The tail light when the switch is pulled is brighter than this glow.

Any thoughts on where I should look first? So far the battery has held up for a couple of weeks with only occasional starting.

What year and model are we working on? The 58 Apache?
You have led lights on both sides?
The tail and brake lamps are the same bright?
Do you have turn signals in the same lamps with the brake and park lamps?
Are the turn signals aftermarket or factory?

factory turn signals - missing the flasher
58 apache 3200
Led's on both sides 1157 bulbs
Turn, tail, brake factory to the same lamp.

Tail & brakes are not the same bright & both are brighter than my 'glow'.

I'm thinking I should look into the flasher - it may be the turn signal switch now that I'm thinking about it.

Sounds like somethings looking for ground through your light. I dont know what, anything in the truck "hot" all the time?
Jeff

Had a somewhat similar situation on my 64 flatbed. Since the main rails of the bed were separated from the frame by wood, there wasn't a good ground, even through the u-bolts. When I installed the junction box to connect all the bed lights with the cables coming from the cab and turned on the running lights, the backalarm sounded and all the lights came on. Ran a ground wire from the bed to the frame, problem cured. The backalarm and other lights were the paths of least resistance for the current.

Sounds like a bad turn signal switch,(internal defect), but the turn signal switch should not have power with the key switch off. Any aftermarket items like radio or clock that might have a memory wire? If so where are they grounded? If grounded to the body and not the battery you may need to add a ground from the body to the battery. Some of these old cars will be missing a ground strap from the engine to the frame, they work fine for a while but sooner or later the linkages and cables the system is grounding thru will bite you in the ars. The same go's with grounding the body (bed) to the frame.

I think I figured it out. I need a new flasher to be sure. I bought a 2 prong flasher & when I went to plug it in I found the third wire.

Anyway - once the flasher was in I was able to move the move signal switch from left to right to center & the tail light would turn on and off. It is now centered and the tail light is off.

I will get a new flasher in a day or so & get it plugged in.

One question though - I have 3 wires with plugs. I don't really know which wire goes on which prong. Can I use a tester light to find the hot side & then play around with the other two to get it right? Which prong on the 3 prong flasher would be the hot? Middle?

The flasher should be marked P,L and +. P goes to the pilot light in the switch handle, L goes to the switching mechanism, + goes to a voltage source.