68 Ford Rear light issues

[Fordkidd]

Hi im new to the site and i just bought a 68 f100 2 wheel drive 240 six three on the tree, my problem is my rear tailights, theyre the stop/turn and reverse lights, when i bought the truck the wiring in the back had four wires coded as follows , yellow ,green , black with red stripe and brown, these wires had jumpers that went to the 6 wires for the tail lights. now they were on when i bought the truck but in the process of making the 130 mile trip home they all came off and i lost the only brake light i had , I really need help on how to remedy this as this is my only vehicle and i need it for work thursday , if somebody could tell me what wires to connect to where so i can at least get my stop turns functioning It would be greatly appreciated

[jimmy828]

have you tried Tech/tutorials. If not look at top of page and click on it and start some searching. Good luck

[Whateverman]

if i remember correctly (i'm almost 100% certain) the tailight wire colours are the same as trailer wiring :
yellow - left stop/turn
green - right stop/turn
brown- running lights

[Fordkidd]

Ok I wired it all up like you just said all quick like to see if it would work and now if i turn the running lights on i get turn signals but still no brake lights and if the lights are pushed all the way in to off i still get no rear lights what could this be? Im no electrical kinda guy but I used to work in a body shop and i had to rebuild a few harnesses there so i can fix broke wires and figure out where they gotta be so long as i can match the wires up or know what goes where ,

[elgemcdlf]

3 things. If you have turn signals & no brake lights then you have a problem with either your stop light switch or turn signal switch assuming the wire between the 2 is ok. You shouldn't have taillights if the switch is off. Lastly it is better for everyone including you if you use a good title on a thread. After all just what would I search for to find this thread? For this something like "No taillights" Also for the record I usually ignore any thread that has "Help" as the title. I am not going to spend my time looking at the thread just to see what it is about. A descriptive title works well.

[Ranchero50]

Amen on the title...

http://www.fordification.com/tech/schematics_h.htm

http://www.fordification.com/tech/wiring/68-23.jpg

It's easier if you print these out.

Tips, trust nothing, verify everything. Fuses, switches, wiring, lights, grounds.

taillight wiring on trucks sucks. I usually cut everything that's been spliced or cut out and replace it all.

Good luck.

[Fordkidd]

alrighty fixed title , now when i pull the running lights on i get tail lights and blinkers but still no brake lights , if the lights switch is in and off i have no turns or brake lights so this would mean the brake light switch on the pedal is bad? or would it be something else i havent figured out yet ?

[colnago]

Sounds like the switch on the brake pedal is bad. Easy enough to check with an ohmeter.

Joseph

On edit, I had a problem with the brake light switch on my '67. I _think_ the '68 has a similar design, where the switch is located on the shaft connecting the brake pedal lever to the master cylinder; if it's different, this probably won't help. On my truck, the switch itself was fine, but things had worn down enough that the switch wasn't closed when I pushed down on the pedal. I ended up making and attaching a shim to the switch, which made things thick enough to close the switch when I hit the brakes.

[elgemcdlf]

already fixed title...

Great! Now in the future when someone has problems with their taillights & they do a search on the subject they will get your thread in the results. They may find the answer they need in your thread. Everyone helping everyone as they can.

[rjewkes]

sounds like the turns are coming off the running light power for some reason. they shouldn't they should be ran through the brake light switch and the two flasher fuses. should be a flasher fuse attached behind the cluster or hanging loose near it on the left of the cluster and one off to the right hanging or attached to the support member behind the cluster.

i also wonder if you trace the wires back to the cab on the driverside are they melted up and shorting each other?