Tail Lights

[Donald Smith]

Have followed all the wiring diagrams but I still do have any tail lights, running lights (front and rear) nor turn lights. Any ideas. The head lights work fine both low and high beam.

Boy, do I hate wiring.

[Ron61]

Donald,

Not sure that this will help, but have you checked all of your grounds well. I finally wound up running seperate wiring for my lights and putting the headlights on a relay by themselves as I was having all kinds of ground poblems. I also had an open wire somewhere in one of the looms and decided I wasn't going to chase it down, it was easier to just run new wires. Another suggestion. with you headlights on, take a meter and check at your turn signals and runnig lights and see if there is any voltage at all. We found one persons car here that had a little voltage but not enough to evem make the lamps glow dim and when we traced that back, whoever wired it had crossed the wiring up and what he was getting was feedback from the headlights Another job where we just cut the wiring out and ran new with new relays. Also some of the wiring harnesses have plugs in them. Make sure they are all plugged in and seated well.

Ron

[Double Venom]

Don,
Not to over simplify, but the grounds are imperative! Then of course it is so simple I hate to mention it, Fuze? Is it blown, is therer a fuze in the proper slot?

DV

[Donald Smith]

DV

Have checked all of the fuses. Next I will check all of the grounds and see where that leaves me. By the way, is there a diagram of the fuse box showing what fues controls what?

[dscott]

If you look in my gallery I just posted a picture of the fuse block with the locations and sizes. You may need to also look at the fuse block connections for the dash. Make sure they are pushed in all the way. The headlight switch needs to be wired as follows:

The back of the switch has terminals numbered 1 thru 6. Run a jumper from 1 to 3 and attach wire #171 to 3. Wire #141 goes to terminal 6. The power wire #112 goes to terminal 2 and 5.

You also need to run a ground from the dash to the cowl bar. You can use any of the gauge grounds and jumper to the cowl bar.
Don

[Donald Smith]

Don

Thanks for the fuse box picture, helps alot. Still have problems with the tail lights. I did get the hazards to work so some progress but will call it day. Will start the first thing in the morning.

[Robert T. Faust]

Hi Don,
Eh, as long as your answering questions related to wirings (?), on my older model (92 CR) with Chevette Steering column, and CR wiring harness, with a Ford Engine, are there two ignition wires going to the balast resistor from the ignition switch?
1) one that resides on the side which goes through the resistor (for after the engine is running, feeding the coil with the reduced voltage)
2) and one which sits on the side that has the wire going to the coil (not going through balast) and only activated when the key is in the starting position?
The reason I'm asking is that presently, if my battery is somewhat down, and I'm turning the engine over, with the starter spinning (drawing the voltage) the ignition wire to the balast drops and after then going through the balast it is reduced even more, lowering the voltage to the coil, not enough to fire up. When this does happen, as the engine is spinning I let go of the key (releasing from starting position to the on positon) and it fires right up.
Someone mentioned that Chevy and Ford use different ignition wirings, the Ford with the solenoids and the Chevy's with the 2 wires to the balast resistor from the ignition switch.
Thanks,
Bob

[Art Burtt]

Don,
This sounds familiar! Fuse block problems?? I remember mmmmm.

[dscott]

Art, I hope this isn't the same thing you had.

Bob, Normally there are 2 things that cause the problem you describe, ignition switch and ignition control box. The ignition switch is adjustable on the column so you could try moving it to see if that helps. If you have the Ford electronic ignition box it can cause the problem you descibe. Replacement is the only fix. If you have something other than a Ford box you can eliminate the ballast from the system.
Don

[Robert T. Faust]

Don,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Bob Faust