MilesP

Hey guys, I'm running in some trouble with the lighting in my '75 Fury sedan.

I'll start by mentioning that all fuses, bulbs and brake switch are new or ok. Only accessory I have is a CB and that works fine. No third-party gauges, gadgets or other accessories.

I suspect a grounding issue somewhere, but there are so many weird behaviors that I don't even know where to start looking.
This car is constantly garaged at home and at work, never driven in rain. I did cleaned the engine with degreaser and washed it off with water though a long time ago, could that have caused corrosion somewhere? I was extremely careful not to spray on any electrical wiring.

Issues when car is running:
• Brake lights do not turn on when pressing the brake pedal, and doing so, the dome light and map light under the dash pad turn on instead.
• Turn signals work fine.
• Hazards do not come on or even click.
• Hazards pulse and clicks quickly (10% brightness) when one of the turn signals is activated. (Feels like something else is trying to override the flasher)
• Key buzzer works when door is open.
• Headlights, dimmer and instrument lights all work.
•*Back-up lights work.

Issues when car is not running:
•*Trunk light does not turn on when trunk is open. Trunk release button works.
• Closing the front door turns on the map light and dome light.
•*Opening the front door turns off the map light and dome light.
•*Courtesy lights (driver and pass. sides) do not turn on when door is open.

To avoid draining the battery when leaving the car closed with the map and dome light on, I have to put the map light switch in the middle (not an actual switch setting) in-between auto-on and on-all-the-time positions to turn them off. This does not make the brake lights come back on though.

That's about it.

jimiheadstone

have you changed any bulbs lately? any bulb from interior to blinker bulbs to headlights
if so which ones, this is important.

let me know it might be simple

440roadrunner

This is gonna take some thinkin I doubt that it's a "ground" problem.

RacerHog

Bring it by Miles.... I'll look at it with you....
I'm Just over here 15 Mile East of L.A.

Mr.4spd

Has it ever been normal since you've owned it, or did this start all of a sudden? What's that CB hooked up to? Though I'm suspecting the column harness assembly is the culprit.

moe7404

yep time to drag out a VOM. dont know that this will help. the column harness thing reminded my. i had a new 1984 ply the horn stopped working. turned out the column was not grounded from the factory. the factory service manual had me put it in park turn the key to run if a certin light on the dash came on it showed that the column was not grounded .

jimiheadstone

ok try this because this happened to me and it drove me nuts with my 67 coronet, when i bought it I was having the same problems. This is also why i got this car with 50,000 miles for 600 bucks.
I could never get the dome light to work and the blinkers were all screwed up. lights would stay on the works.
after months of testing with a meter every piece of wire, i gave up.
by chance, I took out all the bulbs one by one.



Turns out someone installed two blubs that were wrong, first one in dome light.
They installed a dual prong bulb (i remember bringing the old bulb and just buying a new one) when the outlet called for a single prong bulb. Turns out dual prong bulb was shorting and screwing up the harness everything was connected to. and one of the parking lamps same thing but reverse a single bulb in a dual socket, causing havoc in the harness.
It never blew a fuse which was even more confusing.

so it seemed whoever changed the bulbs put the wrong bulbs in those sockets, easy to do when you replace a lot of bulbs.

replaced them with the correct part number bubs, presto!!! everything back to normal. I remember replacing the steering column harness, brake light switch, battery cables, fixing ground wires..... tracing endless miles of wires and connections. changing endless fuses.

just take 20min with a flash light and look at all the bulb sockets to make sure you in fact installed the correct bulbs, go by part number.
I found out the hard way taking the old bulb for granted. but this is a real easy thing to do all you need is 20 min and it just might save you some time and money

MilesP

jimiheadstone: I've never touched any of the interior lights. I did however, changed the tail lights and front signal bulbs. I will open them up again and check them out. Thank you! This is definitely frustrating.

moe7404: Thank you, I will check that out.

Mr.4sp: It happened suddenly. All was good before. When I bought the car, the tails lights wouldn't come on because the brake switch was shot. Put a new one it and it works perfectly. I've check that too and seems fine. I've owned that car for almost two years, and noticed that problem occurring about three to four weeks ago.

RacerHog: I feel like crap right now because I forgot to update my profile and moved 6hrs North to the Bay Area back in February. Thank you so much for offering to take a look at it! What a bummer.

MilesP

Update: I've removed and put back the tail lights front signals, interior dome and map light, all are good and sockets are spotless.

The hazards pulse when on with turn signal on is still happening even with hazard flasher removed. All wiring looks perfect as well, no loose or odd connections. I've even disconnected the CB.

jimiheadstone

did you make sure the bulbs are the correct part numbers for the sockets? also did you make sure the correct style bulbs were used IE Duel prong bulbs in a single prong socket.
Make sure. you can get the part numbers from any auto parts store.
Check every bulb, also you can try the following, remove one bulb at a time and try the car again, then disconnect the brake switch and look for the problems again then bypass the brake switch and push some 12 volt juice into the + connections with car running and not running, see if the bulbs light up. check your fire wall connections and make sure they are clean and add grease to the connections. Trial and error first.

Mr.4spd

Column harness assembly. Make it so #1.

440roadrunner

You mind translating this to English?

So far as the hazard/ TS problem, sounds to me like a bad turn signal switch.

MilesP

Absolutely, I've checked and tried all that, no lock here.

MilesP

The turn signals work fine, though.

Also, I noticed when I activate the hazard switch, the map light and dome light are blinking, not at full brightness however.

jimiheadstone

Do me a favor did you change the blinker and hazard flashers??
they both should be located under the glove box i think.

if you did or did not do me a favor take a pic of both of them.
or describe them.... are they silver or colored also measure the height of each one.
or give me the part number you have on each one.

You could have the wrong or failing hazard/blinker flashers.
both being the same part numbers.

Mr.4spd

Star Trek reference. Engage.

440roadrunner

You may have more than one problem but the thing is, the brake lamps turn signals and hazards all have a common connection---the turn signal switch

The brake lights are routed through the column switch, and the hazard switch is part of the column switch. If something (contacts, springs) has broken and "move around" in there, that is the likely problem

jimiheadstone

I totally agree with 440, But you need to eliminate a hazard, Bilnker flasher problem. a wrong flasher, malfunctioning flasher or piece of crap electronic flasher will cause problems as well. This I know, Let us know your flasher types.
Then I would proceed with what 440 said. The flasher part in simple.
Check that first.