Tail lights not working

Chris N

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I have a 71 Fury Gran Coupe. Recently at a traffic light someone told me that I have no tail lights but do have turn signals. When I got home, my tail lights do light up with the lights on as well as the turn signals but no stop lights. But when I put on the emergency flashers, only the front blink and not the back. How are these connected? Any ideas as to why they don't work. I checked all fuses and they are all good. I had this car for 10 years and never an issue like this. Any suggestions would be helpful!
 
The hazards and turn signals run though the turn signal switch.
Based on similar experience with my 1972 Fury, I'm guessing the turn signal switch is the problem.
The best way to test the turn signal switch is to disconnect the switch below the column, jump power to the pin for input current, and test for voltage at each output wire.
 
Check the grounds. You can do that easily with a length of wire and a couple alligator clips or something similar.
 
On my Imperial, my t/s problem was three things - Wrong rear bulbs, a bad ground at the column, and a bad ground in the right front parking light socket.
 
I have a 71 Fury Gran Coupe. Recently at a traffic light someone told me that I have no tail lights but do have turn signals. When I got home, my tail lights do light up with the lights on as well as the turn signals but no stop lights. But when I put on the emergency flashers, only the front blink and not the back. How are these connected? Any ideas as to why they don't work. I checked all fuses and they are all good. I had this car for 10 years and never an issue like this. Any suggestions would be helpful!
The operational rear TS suggest the bulb, wiring, and ground are all good.

I would suspect the stop-lamp switch. I cannot speak to teh turn-signal switch wiring specifically, but logically the hazard flashers must be overridden by the brakelights, else a car driven with hazard flashers on could slam on the brakes with no indication of braking. Surely the SAE and DOT considered that? (please correct me if I'm wrong)
 
I've had 2 'interesting' rear lighting malfunctions over the years.

One car had a report of a LH brake light out. When I checked it, it was always fine. A nearby motorist would tell me about it about 1/month. It would only happen if above ~60° and if it wasn't raining.
It turned out to be a mildly-weak TS cancelling cam, it would hold the circuit open for that light. I believe the weight of the stalk allowed the RH to cancel OK, but not the LH. I was able to fiddle with it and find the dead spot, to literally turn the problem on/off.

Any ideas what the temperature and rain had to do with it?

Car #2 (this may interest you @Chris N ):
#2 was a 70 Sport Fury (the Great Pumpkin of GT#3 fame, for those who remember that) that had a rear TS that wouldn't blink properly.
It ended up being weak grounds.

The lightbulb sockets at the rear are swaged into the housing, and apparently that ground path got weak. I removed the lenses and went around the edge of that swage with a spring-loaded center punch and that was a simple fix. But it didn't last long enough.

The permanent fix was to sand a clean spot on the socket (behind the bumper), smear some anti-corrosion grease, wrap some wire around and affix it with a hose clamp. The other end of the wire went to a good ground nearby on the car. That was a permanent fix for as long as I had the car.

I don't know for certain, but I suspect that swaged-socket design might be a Fusey-wide thing.
 
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