Help me find my Tail Light Relay / Wiring Issue... Please!

[clemson4rnr]

All-

I have a thread over in the 1st gen section at Yota tech (Tail Light Relay - YotaTech Forums), but someone recommended posting here to see if theT4r gods could help.

The tail lights and marker lights (not the brake lights) on my 85 wont turn off and I have to disconnect the battery cable every time i turn the car off... This (obviously) is becoming quite a P I T A.

Last night I pulled the Steering column covers and lower dash off and unplugged the switch. The lights stayed on.

I will double check tonight but last week when i pulled the fuse the lights stayed on as well.

When i turn the stalk to actually turn the Daytime running lights on they get brighter.

To make things more frustrating, the lights will randomly turn off and then come back on.

I am having a hard time following the wires, so I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of the tail light relay on a 1st gen? I thought it was supposed to be above the yellow breaker in the pic below.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/53379623@N04/5038115828/" title="2010-09-29_22-04-41_791 by alex.mikhalevsky, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5038115828_8973dd967f.jpg" width="282" height="500" alt="2010-09-29_22-04-41_791" /></a>

Below is a picture of the wiring diagram for reference.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/53379623@N04/5071176641/" title="wiringdiagram by alex.mikhalevsky, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5071176641_71da05a7dc.jpg" width="282" height="500" alt="wiringdiagram" /></a>

Admittedly, I am terrible with electrical issues so I apologize in advance.

If anyone knows where the relay is or has any suggestions for where to look to trouble shoot I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Cygnus]

how to start

with electrical issues, remember this:

if it's not doing something it's supposed to, the problem is almost always an "open" (broken or disconnected wire, no power)

if it's doing something it's not supposed to, the problem is almost always a "short" (wires rubbed bare and touching, wrong connections, too much power)

the example in this thread is a short, and the first places to check would be anywhere the wires for those two systems (i.e. the thing it's supposed to do, and the things it is doing) are running together. you'll find bare wires touching, or something connected up wrong.

 

[dorton]

Nice info, but..

Hopefully he's got that figured out by now. That thread was from 3 years ago.

 

[moneypit]

Check this!

Found this some years ago. Check where the wires go from the body to the tailgate. The only place there is power and tail light wires is the this place. I found that the bundle had corroded and those two wires were shorting. If not, it does not cost anything to check.