passenger side tail lights

[richfolsom]

I'm a total newbie at this whole wiring thing, but I have an issue with my car that's driving me crazy. The passenger side tail light doesn't come on. I know the bulb is good, but I also notice the lights for the license tag aren't working either. The passenger side blinker works, so I know some wires are making it there.

It's a 1981, any help would be much appreciated.

[So Cal Mark]

lots of connection/corrosion problems with those circuit boards and connectors

[narfire]

Yeup, time to invest in a test light. I damb near wore mine out trying to figure out the rear lights on my 80.
Start at the drivers lights and you will see a patch cord from driver side to pass side.Test all the conections. I also found that some of the center spring contacts were ..unsprung and never contacted the bulb.
Chris

[spider2081]

The tail light wire feeds the drivers side light assembly first. The passengers side passes through the drivers side. The same wire from the drivers side light assembly powers both marker lights and the right side tail light. I have seen a couple cars where the plastic cover was missing from one of the marker light wire connections. The unprotected connection shorted on the body metal. This burns the copper strip in the drivers side light printed circuit board. I think you should make sure the marker light wire connectors located in the trunk behind each light are in good shape.
I would remove the drivers side light assembly and carefully inspect it next.
A trouble light is a great tool for troubleshooting a problem like this. The wire diagrams can be found on line.

[focodave]

richfolsom,
I had the exact same problem on my 1980 when I bought it.
Lots of corrosion in the in-line connectors that engege onto the circuit boards.
I unplugged the connectors and cleaned the contacts with a small round wire brush to get them nice and shiny.
I also re-bent the metal contacts in the connector so that they would exert more pressure on the circuit board contact surfaces when all plugged in. I did the re-bending with a sharp, pointy leather hole-punch.
I also had to shine up the printed circuit boards' tracks that the connectors make contact with.
You can use very fine steel wool for that or extremely fine sandpaper.
Make sure not to rub too hard or you will destroy the printed circuit tracks.
Then I cleaned everything to get rid of the dust and crap left over from the cleaning.
Plugged it all back to together and, voila!
Dave

[TX82FIAT]

Did the same thing as Dave to fix my 82. Cleaned the corrosion/oxidation off the connection points on the circuit boards and made sure they were tight. There is also a common ground stud in the driver side wheel well to the left of the fuel tank. It is a good idea to take the grounding wire off and clean that up as well so the circuit has a good clean to metal grounding point.

[richfolsom]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'll try to clean out the connectors tonight. I did find the ground screw on the drivers side and cleaned that up. It did help my drivers side tail light shine much brighter.

[spider2081]

although it's good practice to keep the grounds clean and tight. The ground terminal in the trunk of your car is for the fuel pump and all of the rear lights. So being the drivers side rear lights work the ground terminal is not causing the passenger side not to work. If I remember the marker lights ground through their mounting studs so each has their own ground. The fact that just the tail light in the passenger light assembly is not working and the brake and signal are working should mean the ground wire from the passenger side light board is making connection to the drivers side board.