Tail light weirdness

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TXBear
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Tail light weirdness

Post by TXBear »

I got a 1969 F100 that is having issues with the tail lights. Everything up front works as it should. The rear however was not so good. I started with left turn signal, brake light, and nothing else. Got a wiring diagram. Looked under the truck and found a rats nest of wiring where someone tried to splice in a trailer harness. I cut it all out, followed the wiring diagram, fixed the old harness using solder (sp) and heat shrink. Was pretty tickled that it went smooth. Turned on the turn signals and now they both work yippy. Turned on the lights and got tail lights and license plate light batting 1000 now! Hit the brakes and got nothing. No brake lights with lights on or off. Bummer. Any ideas out there on what I got crossed or missing? Had one left brake light when I started but now no brake lights, but have everything else. Hopefully when I turn on the wipers the horn won't blow. Any help would be vastly appreciated!

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Re: Tail light weirdness

Post by Madman »

were the brake lights working before you rewired it?
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TXBear
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Re: Tail light weirdness

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Just the left brake light and left turn signal, no tail light.
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Re: Tail light weirdness

Post by TXBear »

What I have done to date..... With schematic in hand I double checked and triple checked my work. Only issue I found is that the connectors at the tail lights were cut out by previous owner for God only knows what reason. However, the wiring is now correct at least at the bed. Soooo looked in cab, everything feeds through the light switch and peeked under the dash. Found another mess! I mean Holy Cow kind of debotchery! So now in the process to figure out the dash harness and get it straight. Hate paying the price of a new harness for the entire truck but it looks like I am headed that way- anyone know where a reasonable harness can be found? I will be adding power seats, locks, windows, and AC along with fuel injection and electronic ignition so will need a harness/fuse panel to accommodate. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Bear
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Re: Tail light weirdness

Post by TXBear »

OK, since I am not getting much input from anyone on this forum and after an exhaustive search/research on wiring harnesses for the 69' F100 I found the best bang for the buck to be Rebel Wiring. They are literally 100s of dollars less than Painless, LMC, MAC, and Carpenter. EZ Wire was a few dollars less but decided to leave room for custom touches like power windows, power locks, etc. so went with Rebel. The wiring under my dash is just too messed up to try and sort so rewiring the whole truck with all new harness for less than $250. I'll post a review of Rebel and how it went when I do the job.

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thin41
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Re: Tail light weirdness

Post by thin41 »

I'm having issue on tail lights too - good luck.
'69 F250 KCMO
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Re: Tail light weirdness

Post by TXBear »

Sorry it took soooo long to give my update on the Rebel Wire harness on my 69 F100. The harness (as expected) is generic and requires some thought before ya tear into the old stuff and add in the new. When I ran into difficulties the folks at Rebel were very helpful and were able to provide quick and accurate advice. It took me about a month to get it done but made it happen (honey do's, full time job, and running kids on weekends is my excuse). Everything works, soldered and heat shrink all connections, and above all else its clean and safe!!!!! Maybe not the solution most folks are looking for to fix tail lights but my original harness was beyond reasonable repair.
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