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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Tail light/brake lights

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Tail light/brake lights -- page: 1 2     emilychung 07-06-2012 @ 10:12 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 8 Joined: Jun 2012 If you have turn signal lights, your stop lights go through the turn signal switch and you will have extra wires in the harness that goes to the rear of the car. trjford8 06-14-2012 @ 6:11 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4243 Joined: Oct 2009 14 or 16 gauge wire should be fine for the ground. carguy 06-14-2012 @ 9:32 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 167 Joined: Oct 2009 I like the idea of installing separate ground wires from the socket to a trusted common ground but I wonder what gauge wire should be used. 12 gauge or is this overkill? Bill Brown '34 Cabriolet supereal 03-23-2012 @ 7:14 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 The last set of bullet connectors we bought were made of plastic, not rubber, and even after crimping the sleeves enough to get a better tension the things still worked loose, Tom. As it is unlikely that the connectors have much utility beyond making the original assembly easier, I opted for a more permanent solution, and don't have to chase problems out on the road, such as the horn circuit along the inside of the left front fender that defied staying put. I'd send back any connectors that are not rubber covered, too. TomO 03-22-2012 @ 4:58 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7280 Joined: Oct 2009 When you connect the bullets to the sleeves, you should feel the bullet snap into place. If you do not get that feel, order new sleeves from Narragansett wiring. Some vendors are supplying sleeves that are made of soft metal. When you plug in the bullet, it spreads the metal and the rubber cover is supposed to make it spring back. The ones from Narragansett are made from a material that keeps it shape and puts tension on the bullet. Tom supereal 03-22-2012 @ 10:54 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Those "bullet" connectors were not one of Ford's better ideas. We slip a piece of heat shrink tubing over one of the wires, then solder the bullets together, and shrink the tubing over the splice. It looks stock, but will not work loose. As for grounding, even if the lights work, often supplying a good ground will enhance brightness. Pair of 40's 03-22-2012 @ 9:58 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 60 Joined: Feb 2010 Problem solved. Two wires, one up front that powered the brake lights and one in the harness that splits the rear tail lights were lose in there connectors. The ground theory was dismissed because we did have the rear blinkers. Thanks again for the help. trjford8 03-21-2012 @ 10:16 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4243 Joined: Oct 2009 You definitely need power to the stoplight switch. It should be a "constant hot' wire. The power to the stop light switch feeds the power to the turn switch for the brake lamps. supereal 03-21-2012 @ 9:49 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Sometimes the turn signals work when the stop lights don't. This is due to the stoplight bulb finding ground back thru the taillight. When the taillight comes on, the ground disappears. That is so, as TomO notes, to the fact that the turn signals are powered separately by some turn signal controls. It is a tricky problem to diagnose, but we see it frequently in old vehicles. TomO 03-21-2012 @ 9:20 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7280 Joined: Oct 2009 Painting the inside of the light housing with white or aluminum paint increases the light reaching the lens 3-5%. Aluminum foil behind the bulb gives a 15-20% improvement. A .3 V drop in voltage from 6 volts give a 25-30% drop in light output. Using a flashlight reflector behind the bulb increases the light reaching the lens about 48 -70%. This was determined by using a light meter. In my experience, lack of a ground connection will give you very dim lights. A poor connection would give you dim lights. Lights that do not light are usually caused by a lack of voltage to the bulb socket. The turn signals work, so there must be a ground connection good enough for the tail lights and stop lights. Sometimes looking for a common cause of a problem can lead you down the wrong path. I like to take one problem, diagnose the problem and then repair the problem. If it fixes another problem at the same time, I am ahead of the game. I agree with all of the comments on the halogen bulbs. The stop lights get their voltage from a wire running from the stop light switch to the turn signal switch. The turn signals have their own source of voltage. One of the leads going to the stop light switch should have voltage all of the time, the other wire (the one going to the turn signal switch) should have voltage only when the stop light switch is active. Tom This message was edited by TomO on 3-21-12 @ 9:35 AM

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