Tail light problem

[Car RamRod]

Having a little trouble with my tail lights. Everything worked fine until a few days ago, then I noticed my running lights in the back weren't working. Brake lights, reverse lights, signals, 4-ways, front running lights, head lights all still work fine. It's just the rear running lamps that don't come on.

 

I checked the fuse, the bulbs, and the ground strap, all are fine. There's no power at the plug in the rear when I have just headlights on.

 

Any thoughts on what to do next?

 

Thanks!

[comanche12]

try check power supply to fuse. It same thing with mine few days ago then finally found there a open somewhere in power supply wire.

[Akula69]

Mine had the same problem and I found that there are two sets for plug type connectors that come out of the harness. One is for the bumper license plate lamps, and the other was for a small lamp under and behind the bumper that would illuminate the license plate if the rear bumper was not ordered. These two sets of plugs are wired black (ground) and dark blue (positive).

 

In both cases the blue wire is doubled up inside the plug (which is female) and corrosion had set in inside the plug causing the wires to seperate and interrupt the current. When I checked the plug with a multimeter it checked good (because one of the leads is still hot - they just aren't touching eachother in there!). if they separate the running lights downstream from them will not come on.

[Car RamRod]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

It ended up being chaffed about a foot foward of the rear plugs, where the harness goes between the bed and the frame rail. A few wires were damaged and ready to break so this is kind of a blessing in disguise. Gonna fix it up and wire in a trailer light plug tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the help.

[Car RamRod]

Just to close this thread off, this ended up being a "good" problem. The whole harness had wiggled it's way under the bed crossmember and was all chewed up.

 

I cut the harness and ran new wires to the tail light, and I branched off and wired in a trailer light receptacle like I've been wanting to do for some time. Here's some pictures: