Freakin Taillights

The taillights on my camaro have never worked 100% correct since the five years I have owned it, and just recently they have gotten worse. It first started with just the reverse light not working all the time, I could wiggle the connection that goes inside the taillight housing and it would work again. Now the driver side brake light stays whenever the key is turned on. It will not turn off if you hit the brakes, wiggle the connection, or even turn the lights on. Whenever you turn the key back to the off positon it will turn off. What do I need to do? Thanks for any help or comments. Jon

Sounds like the brake light switch underneath the dash might have something wrong w/ it.

or

Theres a bad ground for the tail light.

If it was the brake light switch underneath the dash then wouldn't the other brake light be doing the same thing? Thanks for the quick reply.
Jon

what year is your car sounds like a short to power

its a 69! And within the past six months stopped driving daily and began storing, with occasional start ups and drives around town when I come home.

I know on my 67 the tail lights don't work if the bulbs are not properly grounded to the metal housing. Maybe yours is a similar problem.

I worked on a 69 that had tail light issues. I took an afternoon and disassembled all the connectors at the lights with a small tip screwdriver. Cleaned a bunch of corrosion off with fine sandpaper, sprayed with wd 40, reassembled, bending retaining tabs back a little so they would catch solidly. I also follwed the wiring bundle till I found a connector right above the driver side wheelwell, if memory serves. Disassembled that and cleaned. Also cleaned the light bulb sockets/internal contacts/grounding wires.

Not hard work, just took a little patience. Lights worked great after that. That was over 15 years ago, brother has car now:

http://www.geocities.com/angel71rs/Brothers69Camaro.html

Next time I go home that will be my project. I was afraid that I was going to have to run through all of the connections, I just didn't want to face it. It'll be close to the end of the summer next time I get a chance to go home but I will keep you posted on how I fixed the problem. Thnks for the post's.


JV

I had the same issue with my 68... the problem was the wiring harness inside the steering column. One brake light worked, while the other just stayed lit...

Check out all the grounds before you replace the wiring harness in the column... its a severe pain in the a$$.