Hy toychaser2005, your question is a little confusing, in the middle of your description, you talk about hooking up the battery, the battery would have to be hooked up for anything electrical to work. It sounds like you might have two different problems. "A" your tail lights go out when you step on the brakes, that is usually caused by insufficient ground at the tail light mountings, if your housings are metal, then make sure where they are bolted to the truck is nice clean shiny metal, if they housings are plastic, add a ground wire to each one. "B" Your tailights don't come on with your headlights, that could be a faulty switch, incorrect wiring of the switch, or damaged wiring/disconnected plug somewhere between the switch and the tail lights, hope that helps.
