Electrical mystery.....

fklskv said:

Power Probe 3 is the one you want.

There are videos on powerprobe.com explaining all the functions better then I can.

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Probe-...ocphy=9005547&hvtargid=pla-376660908451&psc=1

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Dam guys, I rewired my whole car about 8ish yrs. ago, and don't have any of that stuff !
I have a home made test light I made out of a tail light bulb/ no socket .
The first thing I thot of was the lead bulb contacts, grounds, rusty socket. He did say he switched bulbs and it worked !~!

The power probe is great for trouble shooting. Hooked to a battery, pos and neg, you can use the probe to inject ground or power to test both sides of the circuit. As in the said light socket assy. With bulb in, and powered, you can touch the probe to the outer part of the bulb, and touch the neg button to ground out the probe. Does it light now? if so, bad ground in circuit. Still not work, touch the probe to the power wire of socket, touch the positive button, probe now is hot power wise, light should work. If not, bad connection at bottom of socket to bulb. sometimes the little solder point at base of bulb is worn so does not touch hot wire in socket. It is a great tool, also works on 28 volt systems.

It was indeed the socket. Had some rust buildup on the inside. I just cleaned it p and it works good now.

I will take that as a win.

I dont even own a power probe but now I kinda want one..

Just old fashioned trouble shooting.


You're welcome.

I had a 71 torino GT that no matter what I did, I could only get one rear turn signal to work.

Brake lights worked fine. I cleaned and even replaced the sockets, and added direct grounds to both sides. If I got one side to work, the other would stop working.

I never did resolve that. Looking back, I'll guess it may have been the switch inside the column.

67Dart273 said:

I know EXACTLY what they are and YOU DON'T NEED THEM. You are implying they are a "must have." Perhaps you could explain "why this is"

a cheap junk (or even bought new) tail/ stop socket and lamp does many things at very little money. The lamp puts a load on wiring which can show up bad connections that a simple volt /ohm test might not, and they can be used to protect circuits when hunting a short. I used to use them in series with a battery charger on small bike batteries. The uses are many. You can configure the assembly for higher or lower current draw And, LOL, it has a "built in" spare stop/ turn/ park / tail lamp................

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Yea, I've gone that route before too. You need a resistive load on it so it pulls current otherwise you may see voltage and it seems right only to find it won't work in the real world.