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68 Light operation up front

S

sigtauenus

Active Member
I've completely re-wired my car with all new wiring, factory style. I hooked up the battery today and tried the lights, and the front turn signal lights came on with the switch in the parking light position, but were off with the headlights on. Is that right? The side marker lights did not come on at all, so not sure if its the bulbs or the circuit. More troubleshooting on that to follow. I'm pretty sure the side lights (in the fender) should be on with the switch in either position, ie, parking lights only and headlights on.

I installed the Scott Drake headlight warning buzzer, and it works, but the buzzer is very faint. I'm surprised at how low of a buzz it is.
 
Front marker lamps typically go off with headlights on; I believe the side marker lamps are on in both switch positions.
 
Sam,
Guess what I'm working on right now?

I'm doing Painless so a heck of a lot more work as compared to using factory wiring. When you say front turn signal light came on you mean the parking element of that bulb came on when you pulled the switch? If so, that is correct. Did you try the turn signal itself?


Hopefully it's just your bulb in the side markers. Those bulbs (1178A) are a bear to find locally. I had to send away for some.
 
I'm slowly working out the gremlins. The tailights work, brake lights work, and emergency flasher works, but the turn signals do not work and the front marker lights are still inop. The turnsignal switch is out of the column, so I'm not sure if there is a ground issue or not, but the emergency flasher works so I think not. The flasher may be the culprit here too. Oh yeah, I still have a few fuzes out, not sure what I'm waiting on, but have only been installing them as I get a circuit wired up, but those remaining should not be a factor here.

I don't have the headlights actually hooked up, the bulbs are used and were set in place just to put all the parts some place when they were coming back from the paint shop. I'm leaning towards a headlight relay harness and haven't decided yet for sure. Regardless, I'm looking over the wiring diagram trying to figure out if the marker light is not on because of the the headlights are not connected (ie, they'd be in series with the headlights).

Its slowly progressing. Moving in the right direction at least as I add parts.

Fog lights are hooked up and work, and they also trigger the headlight warning buzzer if left on with the ignition off, very handy feature.
 
To answer your one question, the side marker lamps DO stay on in both headlight positions. Your problem might be the bulb, but it could be the receptacle.

On my 68, the side marker receptacle is original and the springload is not enough to contact the bottom of the bulb and maintain the circuit. One fix I've tried before is to add a bit of solder to the contact points on the bulb; in my case, the bulbs then became so difficult to put into the receptacle (tight quarters, there) that I couldn't get it to work. You might have better luck with this than I did. As for me, I think I need a new receptacle assembly.

Hope this .02 helps.
 
"Sacbill" said:
To answer your one question, the side marker lamps DO stay on in both headlight positions. Your problem might be the bulb, but it could be the receptacle.

On my 68, the side marker receptacle is original and the springload is not enough to contact the bottom of the bulb and maintain the circuit. One fix I've tried before is to add a bit of solder to the contact points on the bulb; in my case, the bulbs then became so difficult to put into the receptacle (tight quarters, there) that I couldn't get it to work. You might have better luck with this than I did. As for me, I think I need a new receptacle assembly.

Hope this .02 helps.
Click to expand...

Ding, Ding, Ding, that was it. At least for the marker lights.

Still working the turn signals.
 
You can stretch the springs a bit to increase the tension on the bulb base. I have used that process several times.
 
"AzPete" said:
You can stretch the springs a bit to increase the tension on the bulb base. I have used that process several times.
Click to expand...

I finally got the turn signals working.

Scroll down for answer, see if you can guess what it was that I needed to do...












































Turn the ignition switch on. :shtf

All lights working now. Tested the horns individually on the battery, waiting on steering wheel to show up to test from the switch.
 
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