Literally bought a 1979 cougar xr7 3 days ago with 55k miles on it (no roll over). Drivetrain is strong but the wiring is…how do i put it… A rats nest lol. The tail lights seem to work weird.
The blinkers dont work well. What i mean by that is, if the blinker switch is in the center position (lights off) it does nothing. With the lights on the dash illuminates the right blinker steadily when the switch is centered or for the left blinker. If I turn the hazards on all light but the rear driver illuminate because someones been messing with that wiring.
My other concern is that when I press the brake with the hazards on, you can no longer see the flaahing of the hazards on the untouched passenger side of the car. Im getting a voltometer, and my chilton manual is on its way but blinkers working is important.
I do not envy you in this challenge. Reminds me of the 83 Bonneville I had in high school. The left blinker also turned on the windshield wipers.
It’s probably just a grounding / feedback problem on that side that’s been messed with. Check all of the grounds and see if you can fit the matching wire colors together as whatever they did was probably to replace torn/damaged wiring and if you trace the factory wires you might should figure out where things are supposed to go.
The hazards will stop flashing when you put the brakes on because there are no other brake lights and it’s more important that people know the brakes are on than the hazards – just the way cars built before 1986 functioned (and trucks before 1994?) – whenever the “third brake light” was introduced.
So should I expect the flashers to work the same? Not flash while the brakes are pressed? The driver side has new connected so the colors don’t batch and I’m waiting on my repair manual to come in to tell me what wire goes where
If the hazards are on the front lights will stay on when the brakes are on. But a turn signal should continue to flash when the brake is on.
Probably the wires aren’t hooked up properly, see if you can determine which wire is which by comparing the positions/filaments on the right side. I suspect the ground is swapped with one of the other wires causing feed-back into the system.
Yea I was thinking of getting a voltometer its just weird that the untouched side is doing it in the trunk. Must be hooked up wrong somewhere else. Hopefully the chilton manual can give me a bit of help with it
Ended up getting it. Bad fuse that was visibly fine but a continuity test showed it wasnt. The driver tailight was all screwed up with the wiring so I got that fixed after getting my handy dandy haynes manual