'67 Bus Rear Passenger Brake & Turn Signal No Workie

[amishman]

OK, have a '67 bus. At first I had ZERO rear lights but I've been working on that. I found the rear passenger bulb box was bad. Battery acid ate through the connectors at the back of the housing so the wires were connected to nada.

So, I purchased a used housing and took care of that. I've grounded each housing bucket directly to the battery ground point as that was recommended over on The Samba by everyone from past threads. I cleaned all leads with spray electrical cleaner and after some futzing, I have 80% of my rear lights now.

Driving lights work fine as does the license plate light. Left turn signal front and back fine. Right front turn signal is fine but the rear passenger does not work. Neither does the brake light to that one right passenger side. Driver side brake and turn all fine.

So, just no passenger rear brake and turn.

Any help on where to look from here would be great.

Like, for example, do I need to stick a multi-meter at the farthest connecting point on the back of that bulb holder and while brake pedal pushed down and engine running am I supposed to get some volts? If that does not work, where do I go from there.

Thanks

tj

[dtrumbo]

Like, for example, do I need to stick a multi-meter at the farthest connecting point on the back of that bulb holder and while brake pedal pushed down and engine running am I supposed to get some volts?

Correct. If the wiring is original, it should be black with a red stripe. Put your red meter lead on that and the black meter lead to a known good ground (not the ground connection of the light socket, but perhaps the negative battery post). You should read about 12 volts when you apply the brake, but almost certainly it will read a little lower, like around 8 volts or so due to loss in the wiring. This one wire does both the stop and turn function so it's logical that if one function doesn't work, the other one won't either. If you have voltage at the wire terminal, then the problem is in the new (to you) bulb socket. Make sure it's all clean and dry with no corrosion and, most importantly, the ground connection is good. It sounds like you've already got that covered.

If that does not work, where do I go from there.

The other end of the black/red wire is connected to your turn signal switch. If you have no volts at the bulb socket, I'm afraid you'll need to disassemble your turn signal switch and see if it's come disconnected or otherwise is making a bad connection in the switch. It can't be the fuse, because the fuse that protects your stop light circuit does both sides and your wipers to boot.

Good luck!