Hey guys/gals, im new to this board and i am completely lost about what my car is doing. I have an 86 Trans Am and somethings wrong with my brakelights, i dont know if its just the bulb but it seems more like a short? When i have my lights on the right talight is dim, then when i brake they go off but the reverse lights come on on both sides (the left sid is fine besides the reverse light). When i just brake the right side is out but the reverse lights. and also when i have the four way flashers on the right and left side alternate flashing and the right side is still dim. Any idea if it could be just a bulb or is it in the wiring? I dont have any bulbs on hand and the parts store is closed and im also broke at the moment. I was just curious on what could be going wrong. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

It sounds like your tail lights are not grounded properly. This can happen if there is too much rust and not enough metal to carry the ground from the battery/frame back to the tail light assemblies. You could test this out by getting a set of jumper cables and grounding the frame of the tail light assembly to some metal on the engine. You could use the negative terminal on the battery but the engine is probably safter as it is further away from the positive terminal on the battery and the less sparks near the battery the better. Don't ground near the carburator or injection stuff either.

Good luck,

dzimmerm

 

i still haven't really gotten around to some indepth checking yet but could it possibly be just a bulb? When i remove the right reverse light when the brake is on (in park) the left goes out too. Im going to try and get some bulbs tonight and check. If its a ground problem, is it expensive and hard to fix?

 

Nevermind, after a little tracing down i found the problem. It was a pinched wire. Now hopefully this doesn't happen again!

 

Project_1986_TA,

Glad you found your problem. I guess you had TOO good a ground in the wrong place, .

dzimmerm

 

wish he woulda posted the short location....same problem... no find yet.... checked bulbs, wires, and grounds.... must be missing it somewhere...