No tail lights.. any ideas?

[Just 1 More]

I have stop and turn but no tail lights when I turn the headlights on. I wired it as per the manual or so I think I did

[Al_C]

Do you have power to those wires? The tan wires control the tail lights. I'm assuming you have the traditional two round lights on each side. Assuming you have power to the tan wires, I'm willing to bet your lightbulbs are upside down. Each bulb serves double duty - one is tail light and turn signal; the other is tail light and brakes. Try turning (reinserting them) your bulbs 180 degrees and see if that fixes it.

[Dgc333]

When you turn the lights on does the white bar
in the head lights illuminate? If yes, you have power coming from the switch. If no, then check your fuses. There are two tan wires coming out of the head light switch connector. One goes to the white bar in the head light, the other goes to the back of the car to power the tail lights. At this point you need to start checking all the connections. Check the tan wire on both sides of the connector where the rear harness plugs into the main harness with a test light or volt meter. You should have power on both sides. If you don't verify that the tan is going in from the main harness to the same pin location that comes out of on the rear harness and the pins are fully seated. Note: I had a connector miss wired on the sensor harness. Now ho to the back of the car and verify you have power at the tan wire connection to the tail lights. If you don't and do at the rear harness to main harness there is a break in the tan harness. If you do double check that you have the tan wire connected to the correct wire on the tail light. I suppose you could have two bad tail lights but highly unlikely but you could wire a battery directly to the tail light and verify it works.

Good Luck!

[33fromSD]

Also, if memory serves me correctly, depending if your using the headlights as DRL or not, if you are, you need to cut the tan wire going to the front headlights by the headlight switch connector and splice it to 12V. It's been 2-1/2 years since I wired mine but I recall having to do that.

Jim

[Just 1 More]

Do you have power to those wires? The tan wires control the tail lights. I'm assuming you have the traditional two round lights on each side. Assuming you have power to the tan wires, I'm willing to bet your lightbulbs are upside down. Each bulb serves double duty - one is tail light and turn signal; the other is tail light and brakes. Try turning (reinserting them) your bulbs 180 degrees and see if that fixes it.

I checked and I have no power at the tan wire. The tail lights on the 33 are LED so no bulbs 20240310_160242.jpg

[Just 1 More]

Also, if memory serves me correctly, depending if your using the headlights as DRL or not, if you are, you need to cut the tan wire going to the front headlights by the headlight switch connector and splice it to 12V. It's been 2-1/2 years since I wired mine but I recall having to do that.

Jim

I didn't go with the DRL and went with just the amber turn, and those work

[Just 1 More]

I have no park lights on the fronts either.

[Dgc333]

Time to check fuses.

[FF33rod]

Time to check fuses.

+1 Agreed. The tan wire comes directly from the headlight switch, doesn't go through any other device. So if you're not seeing power on tan at the tail light with the headlight switch on it's either a fuse or a break in the wire/connector somewhere...

Steve

[Al_C]

Interesting. This thread got my attention because I had lots of issues getting my lights straightened out. But that was 2018... So I pulled out my trusty RF wiring diagram. The fuse box, common to roadster, hot rod and coupe - or so it claims - shows a fuse for headlights, one for brake, and one for turn signals.

I believe you said your headlights work. Your turn signal lights work, and your brake lights work, yes? If so, then it has to be a connector problem or a break in the wire. I don't think this is fuse-related. Of course, it's easy enough to pull all the fuses and check them. I don't recall whether or not the tail light wires are on the same post as the headlight wires on the switch, but if they're the same, then it would have to be something between the switch and the bulbs. Otherwise, it could be the switch itself.

[Dgc333]

There are two power feeds to the head light switch. Pin 1 powers the head lights directly from the ignition switch and pin 5 powers the parking lights. The parking/tail lights are feed by a 15 amp fuse. The brakes and flashers are powered by a different 15 amp fuse both are in the constant power section of the fuse block.

You could easily have brake and directionals and not tail lights. Check the 15 Amp fuses in the section nearest to the two relays.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Yep, check the fuse for the park/tail lights (labeled “run lts” in the fuse box). Turn and brake lights are different circuits and unrelated to the tail lights.

Jeff

[Just 1 More]

It was a blown fuse