rear tail lamps and reverse lamps..

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crashcaptn

crashcaptn

1965 Dodge Dart GT
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
637
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Location
San Diego, CA
Question for you guys/gals:

My rear tail lamps work fine when you turn on the headlights (as in they glow and light up..), but when i step on the break I get no break lights. Also, when i put it in reverse; no backup lights. The fuse is fine, and considering i'm having the same problem for both, i'm guessing wiring. and since it happened at the same time, i'm guessing i can rule out switches.. what am i missing?
 
2 seperate circuits dude. you didn't cut the wires in the trunk did you? i sat a tool box on mine once and it eventually cut them off.get us a year, and model and one of the fine posters here will try to help. good luck man.
 
The brake lights and the reverse lights should be two seperate systems. If the early a's are the same as my 67 and 69. The brake light switch just went bad on my 67 last week. I just took a test light and tested the power and found the switch to be bad. And 8 bucks later I had lights again. The reverse lights work off the neutral safty switch on mine.
 
make sure you have the right bulbs in there, my brother was having a similar problem, and he put in the right bulbs and that fixed the problem.
 
If you're using new light assemblies and the pigtail wires are both black,try switching the connections. I spent daaaaays agonizing over this one! Look for the simplest solution first.Good luck.
 
Great suggestions, thanks all. The bulbs are new from my exterior "restore" so i'll take those apart and check them. I didnt cut any wires (its a 65 dodge dart btw) and Ill try and switch the connections right now.. that could do it..

once i figure it out i'm going to rewire them so the inside set of tail lamps arent just parking lamps. I want to wire them into the wire that activates the second filament of the break lamps so they're dark till i step on the breaks. These old car's tail lamps are alwyas just too dim

anyway, thats my morning's plan. Thanks for the help all
 
(for the record)
I found out the break switch was a bit gummy. Took it out, cleaned it up and reinstalled it, and the breaks now work fine. Also found out the switch for the reverse lamps is messed up too, but I’m planning on rebuilding the transmission and engine in a few months - so I’ll leave that for then. Also, my turn signals were not functioning properly and found out the passenger side break lamp is grounding out. I'll repair it with a new lamp socket and then rewire as i stated in the previous post and be set.
 
awesome dude. i love those days when everything works out. all seems right in mopar land.
 
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