No Park lights (help)

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K.O. SWINGER

Meeting in the alley since 1976
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After receiving my 340 swinger back from the paint shop I have been reassembling it. I cannot get the Park lights and markers to light I know they're on the same circuit. I seem to be getting power out of the bulkhead from the switch but no power to any of the lights. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
 
Not sure how to help.........you seem to have it isolated, just make sure you are not leading yourself down the "wrong road." Example, a bad connection.........if you are measuring power at the bulkhead with it disconnected, and then connect it up, the loading of the circuit may be knocking the power down through a bad connection. So you need to measure/ test with everything connected as normal.

You sure you have the right terminal at the bulkhead?

Probably the biggest things are poor grounding, bulbs, and since it was painted, maybe overspray, like in sockets, etc.
 
Pretty sure it's the right circuit black wire with yellow tracer also energizes when I click the switch to the first position. It's just strange to me that both front and rear marker lights and front Park lights will not energize it seems if it was a grounding issue it would affect one light correct?
 
I really feel it's something simple but I have came back to it a couple times now and haven't been able to pin it down. The back lights are the only things that will light with the light switch in the first position
 
There are ground wire in the harness, must be properly grounded
 
If you grounded your test light and probed the power contact of the socket wouldn't that help eliminate a bad ground? That is, the bad ground hypothesis.
 
Here's what I would do for what it's worth.......

Connect everything and pull the switch to the first contact. Connect your test light to the negative post of the battery and confirm that it works. Head straight to the light that is not on and remove the bulb. Probe the positive contact with your test light. If it lights up, you have a grounding issue. If it doesn't light up, work your way back up the wiring harness until you find power. That will help isolate where your issue may be.
 
There are ground wire in the harness, must be properly grounded
All ground wires seem to be connected on the front harness.
Here's what I would do for what it's worth.......

Connect everything and pull the switch to the first contact. Connect your test light to the negative post of the battery and confirm that it works. Head straight to the light that is not on and remove the bulb. Probe the positive contact with your test light. If it lights up, you have a grounding issue. If it doesn't light up, work your way back up the wiring harness until you find power. That will help isolate where your issue may be.
That was one of my first test no power to the bulb. I do have brake lights but no rear fender markers side markers or Park lights, I seem to have power out of the bulkhead and out of the switch to too, I know I'm missing something
 
All ground wires seem to be connected on the front harness.

That was one of my first test no power to the bulb. I do have brake lights but no rear fender markers side markers or Park lights, I seem to have power out of the bulkhead and out of the switch to too, I know I'm missing something

What year is this?

What have you probed? Once you have power at the bulkhead, the rest is a fairly simple harness. The park and markers are supplied by ONE wire and ground. The socket grounding is a very likely problem. Turn on the markers. Make yourself a long "alligator clip" wire and you should make one, anyway, "for the future" that will reach the car front to back. This can be a small wire, no20 or larger. Ground this "for sure" on the battery or engine block. Hook that to your test lamp or voltmeter and then with the park lights turned on, jab the other probe onto the socket shell hard. If you get a reading or light, the socket is ungrounded.

I tried to explain earlier, if you "think" you have power at the bulkhead, and you checked this with NO load, it could be a problem right there in/ at the bulkhead. When the lights are connected, they could "drop" the bad connection in the bulkhead.
 
Yup, having to scratch away paint to bare metal in a few places to attach chassis ground wires is the devil in the details.
 
.......Easy enough to check the ground. Ohm meter from the neg battery terminal to the light socket housing. Should have continuity.
 
.......Easy enough to check the ground. Ohm meter from the neg battery terminal to the light socket housing. Should have continuity.

Actually this can be poor strategy. "Back in the day" especially, and even now with some types of meters, that is a good way of blowing up a meter. Much better is testing the way I and others have suggested........apply power to the circuit, and test whether the shell shows voltage above ground.

If however, you made this test with the battery unconnected, that should be safe.
 
Sunday I found the short in my Park lights circuit, as I mentioned I had power from the bulkhead but nothing at the park lights or front and rear markers. Long story short there was a broken wire inside the installation right at the first connection to the front Park lights. Probably separated when my painter was yanking on stuff. The back marker lights was a unrelated problem due to poor ground from the new paint job. Thanks for the help.
 
Good goin. Most of this is simple, it just takes "gittin in there"
 
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