Left tail/brake light problem.

[Hawk Thor Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hawk Thor]

Iīm getting my Cruiser ready for itīs annual MOT inspection.

When I bought it the brakes needed new pads, the trailer harness was unreliable, 1 brake line was kinked, the dash was only half lit, the aux. wiring was shot, the rack-ends had a lot of play in them and so on and so on.

Now I have fixed everything except for the left tail/brake light lamp in the bumper and the trailer harness. I tested the bulbs and they are fine, I saw that the ground wire for the 21/5W bulb had come loose. I tried sanding the bulb socket to get a connection, didnīt work. I then connected a wire to a good ground and touched the base of the bulb directly, didnīt work either.

The part of the trailer harness that wonīt work is for the tail lights and brake lights, all others light up. The harness is connected to the harness for the left bumper light. The connections there are fine, soldered, insulated by heat shrink and there was no change in the light when wiggling each wire.

Is there any spot of the taillamp harness that people have had problems with? The right lamp works fine. The left indicator in the bumper works fine too.

What am I missing?

[Landcrusher Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Landcrusher]

Re: Left tail/brake light problem.

I had exactly this problem a couple of weeks ago when hitching my trailer. All connections seemed sound and I have new brake light units fitted in my bumpers. It turned out to be a break in the wire itself that didn't show up on the outside of the insulation. It's very thin wire and someone had used one of those blue plastic scotchlok connectors that had cut the internal strands. Had to try to solder in a quick bypass, but the copper was in such poor condition (all black) that I had to patch in a bigger piece altogether. Can't say that is the same in your case Thor, but you never know. It can only be - the bulb, connections, supply / fuse or the cable. And you seem to have eliminated most of those. Try a volt meter through the insulation with a pin and see if there is power further up the line. All of this was in the very short run between the loom and the bumper

C

[Hawk Thor Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hawk Thor]

Re: Left tail/brake light problem.

Thanks Landcrusher, Iīll check it out tomorrow.

[Hawk Thor Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hawk Thor]

Re: Left tail/brake light problem.

I guess I should update this thread.

I said that the connections were soldered and heatshrinked, those were just the ones I saw. I removed the electrical tape alltogether and found two crimped bullet connectors, one scotch lock and one butt connector. This might have been fine if the connections were inside the cab, but these were a few inches from the brake light in the bumper. I also noticed that one wire had wiggled apart inside the factory connector by the light and was connecting and disconnecting as the body and frame flexed.

I started by just throwing in a few wire splices to pass the MOT. The other day I tore out the old trailer harness and fixed all the wiring under the body. I then put in a new harness that I spliced to the harness inside the jack compartment, dry and less movement.

So now that the MOT stuff is done I can work on fun things.