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No tail lights, brake lights only when headlights off plus more
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aponee
New User
May 8, 2008, 8:39 PM
Post #1 of 4
(2693 views)
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No tail lights, brake lights only when headlights off plus more
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Year of vehicle: 1991
Make of vehicle: Ford
Model of vehicle: Ranger
Engine size: 4.0
Mileage/Kilometers: alot/unknown
About 2 years ago all the rear lights on our truck started going out intermittently. I found the problem to be a trailer pig tail installed by the previous owner. the wires were spliced in with wirenuts and they were loose, and allowing moisture in. Since we do not use a trailer I decided to remove the pig tail and splice the wires back together until I could find a new wiring harness. At the time all I had was wire nuts, so I used those and secured and enclosed them with electrical tape. Everything worked fine for awhile, and then the turn signals stopped working. I replaced all the bulbs for all the lights, replaced all the fuses, and the flasher fuse as well, all to no avail, but the emergency flashers did work.
This past fall the brake lights and tail lights started going out intermittently again so I started looking for a new wiring harness to just replace the messy spliced up assembly. No auto parts stores, or even Ford dealers had them anymore, and the used parts place I usually go to wouldn't pull one for me. I finally found what looked to be the wiring harness I needed at an online "hard to find" parts store, but when it arrived, it was actually for a trailer hookup. I then decided to use the wires from the trailer hookup and cut out about 4 feet of wires between the connector and the spot where the wires split off and spliced in the new wires using crimping butt connectors and again securing with electrical tape.
Now there are no tail lights or back up lights at all, and the brake lights only work when the headlights are turned off. The emergency flashers will work, slowly, when the headlights are on, and quickly when the headlights are off. the turn signals will intermittently work, without flashing however.
i've done some searching and found that it may be the ground wire. The previous splice job, from when the pig tail was there, did not appear to have a ground wire, I just connected wire to wire, one by one, when removing the pig tail. I did the same thing today when I spliced in new wires. If the problem is the ground wire, which color wire is it, and where do i ground it to? Would i ground it from the connector to the tail lights, which has 5 wires going into it, or from the origination of the wires, which only has 4 wires (I spliced 2 wires to one brown wire as that is what was done before)? Are there any other things I should be looking at the fix the problem?
Thank you very much for your time.
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
May 8, 2008, 11:10 PM
Post #2 of 4
(2688 views)
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Re: No tail lights, brake lights only when headlights off plus more
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Agree grounding is the problem. Go back to where the wiring is original and test the function of each wire with a simple test light. Test for what should be constant ground with the same test light using it in reversed polarity.
Chassis should be univeral ground and truck bed should be also thru a ground strap put somewhere. Add grounds with jumper wires to test as needed and add an additional one or two as needed. At least one should be in sight underhood - they do break off or corrode over time.
I don't understand why you needed a new harness? What happened when original wiring that had been spliced in to the trailer wiring pigtail. Was a section removed? Just put origs back color to color, solder clean bare copper wires with shink tube wrap and then even use liquid electrical tape to further seal up the connections. Plain electrical tape is inadequate for this exposure,
T
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aponee
New User
May 10, 2008, 12:21 PM
Post #3 of 4
(2666 views)
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Re: No tail lights, brake lights only when headlights off plus more
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thanks for your reply. to answer your question about why i wanted a new harness, the pigtail had been installed so terribly that large sections of the original wiring had indeed been removed, and my original fix had involved just "bridging those area's, and was a rather messy solution.
as it turns out, grounding was not the problem at all, but a missing split in one wire, which must have fallen off somewhere along the way so i was unaware that it was needed. i've spliced in a single run of wiring from the point of origin to the plug, now including both needed splits, and everything works like a charm.
thanks for the tip on the shrink tube wrap, it really worked out well for me, i don't plan on being without it in my tool box from here on out.
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
May 10, 2008, 2:20 PM
Post #4 of 4
(2662 views)
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Re: No tail lights, brake lights only when headlights off plus more
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Cool! I was wondering how some "Sammy Stud Snapper" had messed up what such that you needed a harness. I confess to having used wire nuts and taps but I will seal them up with liquid tape completely or if something important gets soldered and shrink wrapped AND covered with that liquid tape to boot. Least bit a road salt here on hacked wiring goes bad fast! I've seen green growth go up inside orig wiring insulation back a foot in real old stuff. This also means that when a wire is probed to test the tiny hole gets sealed also with a dot of the rubber liquid tape ( clear nail polish if inside works ok and faster)
Sounds like you are all set. Good luck,
T
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