On the 12 minute drive home from a friends house tonight my electrical system suddenly crapped out. The local PD thought it was the perfect moment to prove their timeliness, and I got pulled over. I talked myself out of a ticket, and the officer mentioned he used to have a 1968 Mustang. I told him I just graduated from UCSC and that this car is my daily driver, and he looked like he believed me.
The healights were going on and off, I lost all brake/tail/turn signal but reverse worked (it flickered too though). Gauge lights all went off. I heard a clicking sound while the lights flickered. I am scared because this problem is coming out of nowhere and I haven't modified the car in any way lately... What would cause both the brake lights and the turn signal lights to fail? And cause the headlights/reverse lights to go on/off?

 

Bad headlight switch.

 

That's what I was thinking, thanks

 

Maybe this is a good time to check your grounding strap. Maybe even add another one... It certainly couldn't hurt.

Good luck.

 

Oh I just wanted to be clear and ask this question directly. The headlight switch failing can cause the brake lights not to work?

 

No the brake lights are on a different circuit. It may be there is so much current draw the headlights are affecting the main 12 v power circuits, however. Turn the headlights off and then look at the brake lights for operation.

 

I would definitely check grounding.. If it's loose or doesn't have a good contact patch it will cause that kind of problem.. Electrical in those classics aren't too hard to diagnose really.. Just follow the path from the lights backward and look for and replace any thing suspicious looking.