All Small Six 63 Falcon No Tail Lights

[StarDiero75]

Howdy Guys,

I'm fixing up my "get 'er done cheap as possible" car to replace the Ranchero when I take it down for paint, interior, OZ250 head, etc. Its a 63 Futura 2dr sedan, neat car. Anyhow, it has no rear lights at all at the moment. The tail lights work sometimes and the turn signal switch ain't working right and needs to be dead center and causes only 1 brake light to be on (when the brakes do work). Running lights don't work but head lights do. It bothers me the brake lights sometimes work.

I just got done having the battery in the trunk testing all the wiring. Brake lights and turn signals work. The ground works. Everything rear side is good. What would cause no lights to work in the rear when actuated from the cab? The pressure switch is new, and the no running lights baffels me most. The turn signals and brake lights are connected, right? If the turn signal switch was bad, would that make sense that stuff sometimes works but almost never works? Any ideas??

This car is in the process to become street legal. I'm gonna have to drive it 50 miles round trip to the DOT office for an inspection. Gotta have all this working to make it down.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[John Ha]

Rear running lights, which are separate from the brake/turn lights, come from the headlight switch so you should be able to confirm that there's voltage at the appropriate wires coming off the headlight switch. If there is, then you need to check continuity between the switch connector and the rear lights. It sort of sounds like maybe you have either a bad light switch or some broken wire somewhere between the switch and the rear lights.

Brake lights go through the turn signal switch and from what you said about the way things are working, I'd suspect that you need to replace that.

 

[R_Calris]

I had a similar issue with my old mustang, it ended up being a shorted wire in the column, but it was an 80, with tilt steering, and the issue was in the tilt mechanism area.

if there is an issue with all of the running lights, is it a bad contact on the switch itself? not overly confident as tracing a fault in electricals can take a long time, and be as simple as a pinhole in the electrical insulation, or innocuous as a contact not being fully engaged.

I just got done tracing down an issue in my Fairmont where all of my lights (dash included) would shut off and begin flashing if I had my bright lights on for more than 7 minutes. it ended up being the regulator beginning to fail for the charging system, and the alternator not being allowed to keep up with the draw needs of the car.

I would recommend looking at your bulb sockets, and making sure there isn't any rust or corrosion in them; then check your fuse box, and make sure all the fuses are good, and are making good contact with the contacts in the fuse panel. its easier to ensure with glass fuses, but blade fuses will have a clear and distinct marking on the blades that shows the contact points are pressing hard into the metal connection point in the box, and then you will only need to make sure those marks aren't covered in corrosion which would mean a bad electrical contact.

next try setting your voltmeter to resistance, and touching a good ground, then each contact point for your brake/tail lights, to include the fuse box, while the car is off. if you see goose-eggs (zeros across the readout) while in the resistance setting, then you have a short somewhere, and you know where to start looking.

the 'right' way to fix a corroded fuse connection would be to remove the metal tab from the box, lightly sand it with 1000 grit sandpaper until the corrosion is no longer present, then reassemble. the way most people end up doing it is to force the blade in and out of the slot a few times to ensure a solid connection with clean metal.

I hope this helps.

 

[Bill56]

The one thing all those lights have in common is the ground.
The light sockets are grounded to the tail light bucket, which is, in turn, grounded to the body
Over time you can get corrosion and/or loose screws that make the ground to the body iffy.
If you loosen and retighten the screw to the body a couple of times it may be enough to knock off unseen corrosion and make a better connection.

I once got pulled over because a tail light was out.
The cop invited me to get out and see for myself.
I looked, knew that it had been working shortly before and slapped the quarter panel near the offending light.
It went to working right then.
That is where I discovered that the ground depended on sheet metal screws.

 

[bubba22349]

All excellent Tip's offered above and in the spirt of doing it as Low Buck as possible! I will offer a couple more Low Buck tips. First while doing restorations of a few old cars (one was a 1946 Cad) that there just wasn't much of a new parts supply for. I learned that if you carefully disassemble electrical switches such as Heater, Head Lite, Turn Signal, ETC. you could often clean up there contact's with just a Pencell Eraser. Adding a couple extra Grounds is a good idea too. I think one definite part of your trouble is that Head Lite Switch, and likely the Turn Signal switch the intermittent operation points to either a dirty contact or a bad ground. One final tip I don't remember what year the Feds started wanting the Car & Truck Parking Lights to also act as Running Lights too (on When the Head Lights were on) I think it was in the late 1960's or early 1970's. But if you like that idea you can also, do it on any of your vintage Car's or Truck's too with a simple short jumper wire on the head lite switch going from the head lite terminal to the Park Lite terminal. Best of luck with the DOT Inspection!

 

[StarDiero75]

Alright, I finally figured it all out. My colorblindness didn't help out at all lol. It ended up being 2 things. The turn signal switch was definitely shot. I happened to have another one from a parts car, so i threw it on and after testing it many times got everything to work right. However, the running lights/brake are weird. The black wire that comes off the fuse block needs fiddling with to make it work. I even replaced the connector, still have the same prob. I get it working, go to put the instrument cluster back in, lights cut out. I pull it back, works. I breathe wrong, it goes out. I finally put the cluster back in and it wasn't working, so I kicked the dash and its been working since hahaha. It's 100% something with the connector. I put a new light switch in for insurance, made sure its pressed in great, but its not consistent. I'll worry about it again if it stops working lol.

Thanks guys!
Ryan

 

[alwill923]

You are dealing with 60 year old wiring and parts. You will be chasing these problems forever. You fix one and then there is another one. I just got a 1960 falcon and have a 65 truck. The 65 truck was rewired and the falcon will be too.

Only real permanent solution is to rewire. $300.00 autowire universal kit. Sorry for the truth!

 

[StarDiero75]

You are dealing with 60 year old wiring and parts. You will be chasing these problems forever. You fix one and then there is another one. I just got a 1960 falcon and have a 65 truck. The 65 truck was rewired and the falcon will be too.

Only real permanent solution is to rewire. $300.00 autowire universal kit. Sorry for the truth!

Oh I know man. My 65 Ranchero is about to get a new harness.... $550+ later. The Falcon is the soon to be beater. It may get it if I keep it long term

 

[alwill923]

search for my posting on the big 6 and you will see how I wire my grounds alwill923. I do not use the frame or chasey for my grounds. I install a brass post and run all grounds back to the battery negative. I soldered a brass plate to the frame where I put the brass post just to be sure.