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Solved my tailight issue!

K

Kats66Pny

Active Member
For a while I thought there was something funky going on with the wires in the trunk causing the taillights to stay on. They stayed on all the time unless I flipped the battery kill switch to off. Drove me crazy. Well figured out the problem.

On the dash, the swtich for the headlights.. if you turn it ..it dims and brightens the tailights. I thought it was bad enough the horn only worked when the driver door was open.. now this. :lol
 
NO....the tail lights are not on the dimmer portion of the switch. That is the function for the interior lights.....you need to get that fixed...now
 
It's odd. If you turn the headlights on and leave the tailights dimmed, the tailights still come on. Oh and the dash lights are turned on by a switch under the ashtray where I have the kill switches for the ignition and fuel pump. The hackjob wiring the PO did is becoming more and more annoying. :sad
 
I have been chasing my tail light issue on the 67 for years. I found many things contribute.

1- the rear lights I think go through the steering column.
2- I think you should look into replacing your headlight switch.
3- It sounds like your wiring harness in the steering column is FUBR!

There seems to be many areas on these things in the wiring that go into what I consider weird places! Randy can tell us much more as to how this runs.

For my 67 I have replaced the wiring harnesses from headlights to dash. the only part not replaced is from the trunk to the cabin. I still have a drain on the battery and fuse issues that cause the taillights to not work correctly.

I have changed out the wiring in the steering column two times since the Knott's fire a few years ago.

So, I have been going at it hit and miss, my advice to you is get Randy's phone number and call him! Then buy what he tells you to and fix your issue.

Mel
 
Brake/turn lights go thru the column....not the tail lights. Headlight switch may not be bad if the car was wired correctly. Steering column wiring could be good....how do the brake lights and turn signals work....? OK....stay out of the column.

Read here...pick the page you want and study it....it is not rocket science....after all, Midlife does it.
http://hammar.dyndns.org/~djhamma/wiring/wiring1966.htm
 
Brake lights work fine... turn signals work fine sort of. They turn on...but after you make a turn, they don't turn off automatically. Have to manually turn them off. I was told it was probably a broken/missing thing inside the steering wheel. Not even going to bother with it until I change out the steering wheel.
 
With that, leave the column alone. The turn signals not canceling could be a broken plastic tab on the switch OR the cancel pins missing from the bottom of the steering wheel hub. Is my memory correct that you have a Grant wheel?

Study the schematics I posted.....it is not hard to figure out. Just use logic and take your time.

When looking under the dash, does it look like there is a bunch of splicing and patch work in the factory wires? Or is there a bunch of extra wires going places?
 
Yes, I have a small Grant GT wheel. As for the wiring... to me it all looks like a jumbled mess under there.
 
Grant steering wheels are bad for breaking off the canceling tabs on the switch. There are two roll pins on the Grant adapter that seem to be too small. I drilled mine out and installed a bigger roll pin. The right turn now cancels good, but the left turn still doesn't like to self cancel. One outta two ain't bad.
 
"AzPete" said:
Brake/turn lights go thru the column....not the tail lights. Headlight switch may not be bad if the car was wired correctly. Steering column wiring could be good....how do the brake lights and turn signals work....? OK....stay out of the column.

Read here...pick the page you want and study it....it is not rocket science....after all, Midlife does it.
http://hammar.dyndns.org/~djhamma/wiring/wiring1966.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks, buddy. I love you too.

For Grant wheels, you can use the orange cam canceling ring on the back of the standard steering wheel instead of the roll pins.
 
"Kats66Pny" said:
It's odd. If you turn the headlights on and leave the tailights dimmed, the tailights still come on. Oh and the dash lights are turned on by a switch under the ashtray where I have the kill switches for the ignition and fuel pump. The hackjob wiring the PO did is becoming more and more annoying. :sad
Click to expand...

It appears to be time to consider a new set of wiring harnesses and a wiring diagram...probably easier than working out the hacks. :cry
 
Thanks for your help Pete. I knew I wasn't all the way on target, thus the referral to Randy.

Um, I re-read the issue and wonder if some of the issue is the headlamp switch. These are weird symptoms for sure.

Thanks for posting the link Pete, I am going to bookmark that one. I have some issues to track down myself.

The 65 is flawless, but the 67 drives me nuts....Every since the short from the insulation being worn off in the column caused us to jump ship at Knott's due to the smoke.

Anyway, I did not mean to lead anyone a stray, thanks again for clearing that up Pete.

Mel
 
"Sacbill" said:
It appears to be time to consider a new set of wiring harnesses and a wiring diagram...probably easier than working out the hacks. :cry
Click to expand...

Luckily my husband knows about electrical stuff so one weekend I'm going to hand him print outs of all the electrical diagrams and say "fix it". I've been waiting, patiently, for him to mess with the wiring so I could put in the dash cluster I got so I can finally have a normal looking dash/gauges and know what speed I'm driving. :amaz
 
"Sacbill" said:
It appears to be time to consider a new set of wiring harnesses and a wiring diagram...probably easier than working out the hacks. :cry
Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth. Sometimes if a PO has really hacked stuff up it can be easier to just replace stuff instead of trying to figure out wth they did.

Took me a while when I first bought my car to figure out why my front parking lights would come on when I hit the brakes. :lol
 
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