lawman65

65 coupe w/ left rear parking/brake light dimmer than other side. I figure it must be a grounding issue but can't do anything to fix it. I have grounded the housing with a seperate wire, tied in the ground from the bad left side to the good/bright right side, and taken apart the light bulb connector assembly from the housing and cleaned it up with steel wool but nothing is working. Only thing I could not take apart is the -/+ brass contacts inside the plastic sleeve that sits inside the housing. I suppose one of those contacts inside the sleeve could be broken? Any other ideas? Thanks

boogerschnot

Have you tried a new bulb or tested the resistance between the brake input and the ground. i would start at the brake switch and check the wire heading to your tail light to ground and then check the switch to ground too to see if you have any shorts. you might have a loose connection or a rubbed through wire in between. I hope this helps a little.

lawman65

The power wire and negative wire come from the front of the car and is used at the left rear first then continues to the right rear. Right rear is nice and bright so I thought all must be good if right side is last to get + and -. I put he right plug on the left housing and left is still dim. Put the right plug back on the right housing and its nice and bright. This is why I thought it must be the connection or contact inside the left housing. I switched bulbs to check that but still dim on left side. I'll have to check the brake switch power with an ampmeter?

kalli

if you are bored then I'd say swap the bulbs left to right. does the problem move?
then swap left side hopusing with right side housing to see if the problem moves.

if you are not bored and need a more analytical approach and have a multimeter, check what voltage you are having on the cable going to housing against ground as well as the connector where the bulb sits on against the ground that will show you
i don't think you need to check the ground as you already tried with a wire from the good known ground

Norm Peterson

Check the brake lights with a mirror (or two mirrors, or set the car back-to near a wall at night).

Right now, everything sounds OK except the left socket. Weak connection, or possibly corrosion. Test it with a clamp-around ammeter with the battery and ground leads connected and bulb known to be good.


Norm

lawman65

Thanks for the help guys..going to go borrow some type of electric measuring device w/someone that knows how to use it! lol I appreciate all the info and will try to fix the problem this week.

kalli

that will work :-)

lawman65

Update: I got a new housing with the bulb contacts inside and now it is nice and bright! The brass contacts on the old housing must have been cracked or crudded up. Thanks for the info!