EZ wiring tail light circuitm

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plumkrazee70

plumkrazee70

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I have a 70 Dart and got the EZ wiring 21 circuit harness. I have mounted the fuse box and have all the wires ran. I started at the rear, hooking up lights.

The three wires in the rear are labeled:

1. Left/Right backup
2. Left/Right Turn
3. LEFT/Right Tail Park

My question is how are the taillights grounded? I see three wires in the tail light plugs:

1. Backup: Pink
2. Tail: black
3. Brake: green

Under the dash, there is:

Brake switch power
Brake switch

So I hooked both of those wires to the brake light switch and applied 12V to the power wire and got nothing when I pushed on the brake.

Do the housings need to be mounted? Currently they are not.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
If I remember right don't they ground when you screw the housing to the bumper ? You can Always solder a terminal to the light socket and run a dedicated ground wire too.
 
Most everything on these classics uses a daisy chain of metal to metal contacts for a chassis ground path. Most bulbs with metal base in metal sockets in metal fixtures included. Front lamps mounted in a plastic grille require a ground wire.
Headlights require a ground wire. Those bulbs in the inst' panel dont have the metal base and are in plastic sockets so one would think they require a ground wire. In fact they are chassis grounded too, metal inst' housing which grounds to the metal dash via mounting screws.
 
As mentioned the lights are grounded through the vehicles body. When I installed my EZ harness, I ran a separate ground wire. Like mentioned above, supply your own grounds. If I recall I created 3 main ground points in my car. I soldered a ground wire to the outside of the light socket and ran it through the grommet back into the car. Worked out great.

To test the wiring either mount the tail lights or have someone help you push the brake pedal as you ground the light yourself with your own home made ground.
 
Thanks, everyone. I knew I needed to add my own grounds, but wasn't sure how the tail lights were grounded from the factory.

I will see about soldering a wire to my tail light housings and then running that wire inside the trunk.
 
I did some testing today and it seems like the best spot for a ground is at the socket itself. What is the best way to go about soldering a piece of wire there? can I use my soldering gun, or should I pickup a butane torch?
 
plumkrazee70 said:
I did some testing today and it seems like the best spot for a ground is at the socket itself. What is the best way to go about soldering a piece of wire there? can I use my soldering gun, or should I pickup a butane torch?
Click to expand...
Thats also where I soldered my wire to. I used a soldering gun, took a bit to get it to heat up. I will mention Im not great at soldering so you may have better luck. However mine has not come loose so I must of cleaned it properly.
 
this is how i did it... not real pretty but it worked well..

this isn't a tail light but you get the idea.

DSC_9299.JPG
 
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