Dome lights, blinkers, parking, brake etc.

[ParadiseMJ]

Well, I decided to tackle my electrical gemilins today.

 

Dome lights. :dunce: I bought two new bulbs, tested the circuit, all good. No light. Door switches...good, switches rotate etc. I read on here to shine up the contacts in the light. Worked great!! I got domes.

 

Blinkers - Rears worked fine, fronts never worked, I got the front header panel at the JY. I opened it up and found two blown bulbs, and 2 totally corroded sockets. Replaced the sockets and bulbs, I got front blinkers.

 

Parking, side markers - After the new sockets, parking lights work fine, nice and bright. Side markers WERE working, one was out, then both. I whacked the side of the fender, and they both came on (still have issues there).

 

Brake lights - Work fine, including the user installed third brake light.

Only problem...When the brakes light up, so do the reverse lights. :dunno:

[STERLING STINGER]

thata funny, i fixed my domes yesterday too. I just took them apart and cleaned all the connections with dremel, still seemed loose..so i bent the "roller piece" just a bit till ir was tight in my hand, then installwd and they work now. The lights make such a diffrwnce. Its like a new truck to me now...lol.and my bed light works now too...musta had something to do with the connections????

[ParadiseMJ]

So, anybody know why my reverse lights would come on with the brake lights. Could there be any possibility that installing the 3rd brake light would crossover to the reverse lights. It's just a simple connection FROM the brake light switch TO the light. The other wire is grounded to the cab.

 

Added note: The blinkers work fine, front and back, but when I turn the head lights on, both blinker indicators on the dash are lit!!?

[Automan2164]

So, anybody know why my reverse lights would come on with the brake lights. Could there be any possibility that installing the 3rd brake light would crossover to the reverse lights. It's just a simple connection FROM the brake light switch TO the light. The other wire is grounded to the cab.

 

Added note: The blinkers work fine, front and back, but when I turn the head lights on, both blinker indicators on the dash are lit!!?

 

 

I would unplug the rear harness, and pin out the reverse lights coming from the cab with a DVOM. If the reverse light circuit still is getting power with brakes, you know the short to power is in the harness from the brake switch somewhere. If you don't, you'll know that its in the tail light harness. I am betting your short is in the tail light harness though. The wires back there share a ton of common grounds, and if the grounds get bad, power will try to find its way out anywhere. If there is less resistance to go through the reverse light than to go to a poor ground, it will.

 

Electricity is lazy.

 

Rob L.

[ParadiseMJ]

Background: The wires leading to the tailight harness were spliced (before the taillight harness) to run the trailer wiring. The PO made a funky job of it, so I took off all the splices, shrink wrapped all the wires at the point of each splice as insulation and then wrapped them all together.

 

The PO also made another set of splices (for the same reason) under the cab, and had mounted the trailer connector at the wheel well INSIDE the cab. I'm going to give them the same treatment (remove splices, insulate, wrap). I don't think there could have been any way that the wires in the rear were crossed as I separated them all first. I suppose there could be some leakage there though. I may have to find another harness (cab to tails) at the JY.

 

When it comes to wiring, I'm a :dunce: .

[maddzz1]

If I remember right, There was a post on here about a 3rd brakelight and the person trying to add it was having the same problem. Ill see if i can find it.

 

Found it: This may help:

 

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21429&hilit=3rd+brake+light

[ParadiseMJ]

Well, the brake light works as planned. It's wired right off the brake switch and there's only 1 wire. When I turn the lights on the brake light stays off, blinkers stay off too. I also disconnected the 3rd light to see if anything changed, it didn't.

 

Now though, I disconnected the 2nd splice job the PO did and found that he had grounded the harness in two places. Seemed weird, but now the reverse lights do not come on with the brake lights...and they work in reverse.

 

My other issue of the blinker indicators staying lit all the time is still happening. When my parking lights were out, I replaced the first socket and lit it up to see if was working and it was, but the other blinker was not and THAT indicator was steady on. When I fixed both sockets it was all good.