Tail lights

[RPMLegends18]

Hey guys. I just finished swapping a 73 rear end onto my 74 Dart swinger. Quater extensions tail panel...everything. Now I am trying to figure out the wiring. The 74 wiring harness has 6 wires, one black, two pink, one green, one brown, and one grey. The 73 has 7 wires. Three black, one pink, one green, one brown, and one grey. My problem is I cant get the right rear brake light to work. The right tail light works but no brake light. I followed the brown wire, which by the book is supposed to be the RR brake light to the plug before the loom goes through the tail panel. And it lights up the test light at the plug but it will not light up the side of the socket. Which I think is where the power for the brighter brake part of the light is supposed to come from (I may be wrong) But at that same brown wire at the plug if the lights are on it lights up the test light. Soooo this is what it does. Lights on it the "low beam" part of the light works, but step on the brake pedal it shuts off completely. With the lights off and pressing the brake pedal it lights up but only the "low beam." The left side and the license plate lights work fine its just the right side. Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to make sure I got everything down. Any help is much appreciated on what to do. Should I peel back the loom and see if there is a short somewhere or something? Could the socket itself be bad? Ive tried changing bulbs to make sure it wasnt something simple like that. I also tried cleaning the inside of the socket.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[RPMLegends18]

Alright after messing around with a jumper wire that I had I took the jumper wire and put it on the outer side of the socket, the lip that sticks up through the lense and everything worked...So the one contact is low and the other is high and the socket itself is the ground. So now it comes down to a ground problem I suppose. The tail panel is all welded in, the bumper bolts are tight, so how could it be a ground issue? And especially since the left side is working. So what do I do? I tried getting that socket out of there to see if I could change it but it seems to be in there pretty tight and I dont want to take a pair of pliers to it and mess it all up if I cant get a new one in there. It seems like it would come out but hell if I know...

Again any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Steve68]

Check the area where the socket plugs in. I don't know what the setup looks like on the dart's as I have a 68 Barracuda but I had to scrape through some paint where the taillight housings bolted in to get good grounds. As i put each item in I checked from the housing to a known good ground point, and from the light socket exterior (ground point) to a known good ground. Usually it is just some stuborn paint keeping you from having a good ground. And don't feel to exasperated, chasing lost grounds will drive you nutty till you find the problem..Had a Chevelle that the dash lights quit working on but would come back on when I used the windsheild wipers. I ended up just putting a ground jumper from the dash frame to the body, solved the problem and I had not done any work on the car!

 

[RPMLegends18]

Thanks Steve I finally got it in working order on thursday night. I couldnt get the socket out of the lens so I took the bumper back off wire brushed all the bolts took the lens off the bumper cleaned off some surface rust put it all back together and the work great now. It was driving me insane. The funny thing was last night I took it for a little cruise and got passed by a 70s Nova and when he stepped on the brakes it would do what mine was doing. Right rear tail light was on, when he stepped on the brakes it shut off. I just kinda chuckled.

Thanks for the help,
Ryan