Brake light and head light problem

[Beforwarned]

i have a 70 satellite for some reason when i have the lights on i have to ground the passenger side brake signal box so it will light up and when i have the car on the gauges all work but when i turn on my lights they change the reading on my fuel guage and temp and the two signal light on the dash blink lightly i think this problem has to do with my front lights cause when u click the high beams they turn on but when u click again for the low the dont turn on any feed back would be great

 

[70rr-brian]

I would start by verifying all grounds are good. After that, remove the bulkhead connectors from the firewall under the hood and clean the oxidation/crud off them and try again. Have you removed the instrument panel to see what the situation is with the wires behind it? Are there lots of splices and hacks from previous owners?

 

[godfatherofchry]

yep its definitely a ground problem.do as said and wd40 will be your frend....Artie

 

[Beforwarned]

I would start by verifying all grounds are good. After that, remove the bulkhead connectors from the firewall under the hood and clean the oxidation/crud off them and try again. Have you removed the instrument panel to see what the situation is with the wires behind it? Are there lots of splices and hacks from previous owners?





where should i have grounds i have one on the battery cable all the dash harness is new the gauge cluster is in great shape should i be grounding the back tail light or no is the ground why my head light only work when the on high beams

 

[okiemopar]

Your front signal lites have to be grounded good and on my back lites I had to put a ground on each one. All of the lites are suppose to ground thru thier cases. This is on my 70 RR. Good Luck Ronnie

 

[moparstuart]

70's have horrible taillamp grounding problems

 

[ply64post]

grounds

I would start by verifying all grounds are good. After that, remove the bulkhead connectors from the firewall under the hood and clean the oxidation/crud off them and try again. Have you removed the instrument panel to see what the situation is with the wires behind it? Are there lots of splices and hacks from previous owners?





where should i have grounds i have one on the battery cable all the dash harness is new the gauge cluster is in great shape should i be grounding the back tail light or no is the ground why my head light only work when the on high beams

2 grounds I can think of are

1- Battery to the core support
2- Engine block to the firewall
l

http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/1970/70BelvedereGTXSatelliteRoad RunnerA.JPG

http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/1970/70BelvedereGTXSatelliteRoad RunnerB.JPG

Jeff

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

You may have to pull your cluster out, I had a burnt circuit trace and it caused a lot of issues like fuel gauge going to full when high beam was on etc... Remember every electrical item in your car needs to be grounded this includes the cluster itself! make sure the screws holding the parts in are clean and solid etc..

Sounds like you have multiple issues, but if you start with grounding - making sure it is all good to the offending devices then you can move on to devices themselves i.e. light switch, turn signal cam, brake light switch etc...good luck and be patient it may take a few. and make sure you have a good ohm meter with volts reading.

 

[green1]

Dimmer switch bad, and that block to firewall ground doesn't cut it. Put an old battery cable from the block and bolt it to the k-member or frame.

 

[green1]

Looking back, you mean you have to use turn signal switch to get rear light back on?

We have been fighting this on a 69 Charger. Found bad grounds in trunk, got to work, then erractically, pass brake won't work. new turn signal switch. Then use the turn again, starts working. Our next week project. For a while, it was all screwed, until we traced from a schematic, that 4 way flash tied in; cleaned that switch, and brake light worked for 2 days....

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

Looking back, you mean you have to use turn signal switch to get rear light back on?

We have been fighting this on a 69 Charger. Found bad grounds in trunk, got to work, then erractically, pass brake won't work. new turn signal switch. Then use the turn again, starts working. Our next week project. For a while, it was all screwed, until we traced from a schematic, that 4 way flash tied in; cleaned that switch, and brake light worked for 2 days....

I had that on my RR, the turn signal cam was worn causing miss connections when turning the wheel and would loose the right tail light, took it apart and rebuilt it myself real easy one. just as easy to replace except with out the wire splicing. Looks like you are getting there. more grounds to the chassis the better. Look at this way take a new 2011 car and I.D the ground points to the frame, bet there are over 20.

 

[green1]

It was new, twice ( turn signal). I think you are are right on the grounds, To the original poster; You can't have enough redundant grounds on these car.

Battery to block
Block to frame(forget that little piece of copper to the firewall; big cable to frame). Clean that little cable, also.
cluster to dash- add another one.
Like previous poster, add rear light grounds.

We are dealing with old "tired iron" here.

 

[dfarmercse]

Grounds are always a problem on cars. Voltage will always search for a ground. If you loose a ground for the headlights, the voltage will search for a ground else where. Most of the time when you have wierd electrical problems, you have a ground problem.

Dave F