Ok... checked the ground that you mentioned previously and the the directional arrows on the dash and signal lights blink faster now, but the brake light and seat belt light on the panel just above the radio also flicker.
Brake lights are non existent....... this troubles me the most.
Checked all the bulbs in the trunk and they checked OK.
Cleaned the terminals and sockets with a car battery pole cleaner brush added dab dielectric grease on the socket and bulb base. the bulbs are brighter but still no brake lights.
I had the same dim bulb issue. Here is what I did to fix it. New bulbs all around. moved the taillight ground to actual chassis ground and away from the taillight. I also found that most of my connections on the taillight circuit board were weak. I tested them with a jumper and ended up soldering a bunch of the connections between the board and the lamp sockets on both the positive side and the ground side.
azruss wrote:I had the same dim bulb issue. Here is what I did to fix it. New bulbs all around. moved the taillight ground to actual chassis ground and away from the taillight. I also found that most of my connections on the taillight circuit board were weak. I tested them with a jumper and ended up soldering a bunch of the connections between the board and the lamp sockets on both the positive side and the ground side.
Hello Azruss, thanks for responding. I like your idea.
Do you have a picture of what you did to the boards? I am particularly interested to see the locations of the solder points for the positive and the ground. I am not familiar with doing electrical work and reading schematics so your help would be greatly appreciated.
I would first check for power at the brake light switch. Do you have a volt meter or test light to do this?
The white wire on the switch is power from the fuse. The red wire from the switch is power to the light boards in the rear of the car.
Brake light and seat belt light still flash.
Behind the instrument cluster there are connectors for the cluster. On my 81 I can reach them from under the dash and not removing the cluster. C22 has 11 pins in it. It connects the grounds from the Signal indicator (in the speedometer) to the brake and seat belt indicators to the G# ground pod you cleaned. If C22 pins are not making a good connection it could be your problem.
I have soldered a number of rear light PC boards. I agree this makes a lasting repair. I don't feel it is a job for someone who does not have a above average soldering experience. The PC board copper material (lands) is very thin and easily damaged with excessive heat. It is lightly coated with an environmental sealer that has to be removed. Both the copper and the light sockets must be very clean for the solder to stick properly. Because the socket is much heavier metal that the copper most of the heat has to be applied to the socket and a small amount to the copper. It is very tricky. Only solder and flux specifically made for electrical connections must be used.
OK... SPeedometer cable is detached. cable looks good but connector is snapped broken near gauge. I will try to temp repair with duct tape.
I am trying to locate the brake light switch.... where is it?
Do you personally perform the soldering of the rear light panel?
If so then I would be interested in this service. I would drive to where you are in CT with the boards in hand and have you perform the service.... let me know where, when and how much.
Here is a soldered board. As you can see, all the electrical contacts to each socket is mechanical through a rivet. I tried spraying contact cleaner in the connections with marginal results. As you can see, the board needs to be scraped down to the copper to get a solder connection. I tested all mine with a jumper between the bulb connection and the appropriate board connection. You can visually see which one to test. if the bulb got brighter with the jumper then i soldered. the black line separate each of the circuits. the center one is ground where all lights have a connection. If you are not up to this as a DYI, you may want to find and auto electric repair house, alternator shop. With todays computers, i'm not sure a modern electronics repair could do it. Maybe a TV repair shop.
the PS rear light cluster goes through the DS cluster. It is possible that if the DS is bad, the connection never makes it to the PS. The ground for both sides is the single ground that connects to the DS cluster mounting bolt. Even when mine was clean and fresh the ground was never great. I moved it to is own ground on the chassis. I think i found an existing bolt on the gas fill cup I used.
Just a side note: These boards were made by what we used to call "print and etch" technology. It is a very low tech, very low cost way of making a rigid circuit without wires and is used in many video game cartridges, etc. The big advantage was there was no need for PTH (plated through holes) and hence a large number of circuit board manufacturing steps were eliminated. Many times, there would be no solder mask (the green film) applied, to cut costs even further, but in an automotive environment I guess it was felt that it provided some protection for the circuit lines.
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2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
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2019 Bianchi Torino Bicycle
Now that I have exposed the copper on the rear light board so that the solder could make a good connection, is there a coating that I can use to reseal the copper so it doesn't corrode ?
