Keep losing ground to the left rear tail light.

[Paul Cotton]

My 65 Belvedere keeps losing the ground connection to the left rear tail light. Anyone have a suggestion on how to cure this once and for all.

 

[oldbee]

Solder a jumper to outside of bulb socket and over to good ground on body?

 

[Ron H]

Lights on my 63 as I encountered needs good contact with bulb socket and housing and some corrosion can create a contact problem and i also ensured each housing was grounded to body

 

[Fran Blacker]

di-electric grease where needed to help stop corrosion .

 

[Glenwood]

I ran separate ground wiring to all housings front and back. The sockets can loosen and a little corrosion between the sockets amd housing or inside the sockets will cause random problems. I scrubbed these areas with a small steel brush and a bit of electronic cleaner.

 

[Paul Cotton]

Solder a jumper to outside of bulb socket and over to good ground on body?

I was thinking about doing this very thing. Wasn't sure if it would work. I think I will go ahead and give it a try, thanks.

 

[Paul Cotton]

I ran separate ground wiring to all housings front and back. The sockets can loosen and a little corrosion between the sockets amd housing or inside the sockets will cause random problems. I scrubbed these areas with a small steel brush and a bit of electronic cleaner.

I was thinking about trying the separate wire but hadn't gotten around to doing it. I think I will try it as well as the electronic cleaner. Thanks

 

[Paul Cotton]

di-electric grease where needed to help stop corrosion .

Thanks for the reply, I will give the grease a try as well.

 

[ckessel]

The steel socket rusts and the cast/stamped housing corrodes/rusts leaving you with no contact. The cleaner will just de-slime I believe[ could be wrong]. Ron Francis makes billet sockets that go in with a big nut. This will allow you to scuff out whatever is in the housing while its vacant. You can apply some dielectric grease on re-assembly to prevent the corrosion from happening again. This is what I'm going to use on my car. In addition, you could add on another ground to the sockets and housings then attach those directly to the body. I did that on a Camaro I wired. I added in 12+ extra grounds besides the usual units. Grounds on old cars sucked when they were new and get worse with age.

 

[khryslerkid]

Every time I see the title of this thread is think it's a political one. Lol

 

[oldbee]

KK yeah laugh ur butt off! It'll happen to one ur sockets one of these days!
Jeff

 

[khryslerkid]

KK yeah laugh ur butt off! It'll happen to one ur sockets one of these days!
Jeff

Oh I've had them do that, years ago. It'll drive you nuts!

I'm not laughing about his problem just the first part of the threads title.

 

[oldbee]

And then the real fun part of grounds are the semi-trucks; 100,000 miles a year and in the winter, pounds of dry/wet road salt screwing up power/grounds to lights like you wouldn't believe.

 

[khryslerkid]

And then the real fun part of grounds are the semi-trucks; 100,000 miles a year and in the winter, pounds of dry/wet road salt screwing up power/grounds to lights like you wouldn't believe.

And the dash clusters are all electronic. One company I worked for had all IH trucks. One after another were having electrical problems.

 

[Ron H]

After getting my car back from the paint shop with several coats of clear on it...it was a fun job reassuring all ground connections installing refurbished lights, new gaskets, seals, wiring harnesses, etc. since car was stripped totally naked for the paint! I won't go into details with reattaching all the trim getting through the new paint!

 

[oldbee]

Ron I agree, mine goes for paint end of Sept and all the chrome is coming off & I figure at least a couple lights will be inop when it goes back together!

 

[Ron H]

Well just knowing you gotta be concerned about grounds as you do will avoid hassles. Be super patient trying to get trim to fit back on right and opening holes to push clips back in. Was a real tedious ordeal..

 

[Shorthorse]

A Dremel wire brush works great on sockets.