On my 1968 newport I am getting all sorts of weird things happening with the lights.
-If the ignition is on and I step on the brake, the dash lights and side marker lights come on.
-with headlights on brake lights come on solid
-with no headlights on the signal lights work fine but with the headlights on if I signal left the flasher works but if I signal right I have to manually flash the light or it will just stay on solid.

I was thinking a grounding issue but Im not sure exactly what to do to verify ground on the tail lights. Where could I check the ground for them.

Other suggestions for what to look for?

Thanks,

Gary

 

Feedback from some where. Check the grounds for the rear lights in the trunk.Check the front headlights too, on the rad support

 

It's easy to check socket grounds. Just clip your meter or even a test lamp to a good ground, and with the suspect lamp powered, stab the probe right into the metal of the socket. Be sure to watch the suspect lamp for changes as you do so, as if you move or jiggle the socket, it may temporarily ground itself and hide the problem


I think you must have either a couple of melted "welded" wire conductors in the harness somewhere, or the harness has suffered some physical damage.

There should be "no" connection between all that you have described.

This does not sound like a ground issue to me

I would start by trying to isolate

1........Get into the kick panel or wherever the connector is in your car, and separate the rear harness from the rest of the car. This will disconnect tail, backup, and signal / stop lamps from the rest of the car

Try different combos as you listed to see if the problem still exists.

If the problem goes away, before you dig into the harness, plug it back in and try pulling the rear bulbs. If a bulb is incorrect, installed in the socket wrong, or even if the pigtail in the socket is shorted together, this can interconnect a signal and the tail circuit

2......If this goes nowhere, try pulling the front park / signal bulbs one at a time

3....If this last does not bring results, try separating the column connector for the turn signal switch. This is very likely to change the problem, unless the problem is "up in the dash" feeding the cluster. Actually after thinking a bit, this last may not be conclusive.

I would suspect the problem is an unwanted interconnect between the park / tail circuit and the signal circuit and NOT the headlight circuit.

Are you saying that turning the ignition switch off hides the symptoms? This might indicate a connection to the signal main path, IE the flasher power line, as the brake lights and park / tail / head are all independent of the ignition switch.w

 

 

Quote fail...

 

This will be very helpful. Thank you very much. I will be getting at it in the next couple days to start figuring this all out ( stupid work getting in the way of my car) I will let you know my progress.