dim brake lights

[nhojman]

I have a 1950 Dodge Wayfarer which I bought several months ago. the brake lights are dim, they are lighting up the dim parking lights instead of the brighter brake lights and when i have the park lights on, you cannot see the brake lights come on at all. The turn signals work fine even when the parking lights are on. I have been experimenting with the wires in the trunk to no avail. does anyone know about this problem? any & all help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

 

[P15-D24]

First make sure they have the correct 6 volt bulbs installed.

Next make sure the contacts on the old bulbs are clean and shinny.

Lastly make sure you have a good ground connection. When testing I run an external group wire (14 ga) directly from the battery to the bulb to verify the gound is good.  

Also if you have a volt meter measure the voltage at the battery and then at the lamp socket. They should be almost identical.   

[greg g]

These bulbs have non indexed mounting pins,  just remove them from the socket  turn them a half turn andput them back in.

[rb1949]

Follow good advice above. Power the bulb itself to make sure both filaments are lighting.  Socket and pigtail contacts clean, providing power & ground. True, bulb fits 2 ways and try rotating. One by one in the process of elimination. I identified old crumbling oxidized wires to be a problem, so replaced all in trunk. Trace and replace one by one, not too hard, which included new pigtails in each socket. I reconnected wires by using a terminal block in trunk. Stick around to give, or ask advice.

[mopar_earl]

I had this problem. I installed a ground strap from the engine to the body and all my lights went dim to bright. Not sure if someone removed the body ground or if they didn't use them back than. Also the lights ground to the body, so you can have a poor ground from the light assembly to the body. Also check the connections on the brake light switch. Mine were corroded and causing dim brake lights. Switch is near the rear axle on the brake line at a tee.

Earl

[Sharps40]

On these old cars, there is no such thing as too many grounds.  Many of your lights are grounded through sockets to dash or buckets, stands, fender, body to frame.  Add dedicated lighting ground connections that terminate at the frame or engine block and add a strap from engine to frame and straps from body to frame.

[greg g]

While on the dim light discussion, the headlamps are grounded to a section of front fender sheet metal that is directly in the path of stuff thrown up by the tire.  The area is prone to corrosion, so those headlamp grounds could be in an areas compromised by rust.  A check and clean or a relocation to fresher metal will go a long way to improving headlamp performance.  

[50 coupe]

Grounds! I just experience the same. Remove the bolts from inside the rear fender that hold the tail light assembly in. sand off the corrosion around the bolt hole and from the bolt/nut. I actually replaced the corroded bolt/nuts with new. The clean contact cured my ground problem and the lights are brighter and only the circuit that is supposed to light, does.

[50 coupe]

Grounds! I just experience the same. Remove the bolts from inside the rear fender that hold the tail light assembly in. sand off the corrosion around the bolt hole and from the bolt/nut. I actually replaced the corroded bolt/nuts with new. The clean contact cured my ground problem and the lights are brighter and only the circuit that is supposed to light, does.

[Don Coatney]

As mentioned a engine to body ground strap helps a lot. I also ran a dedicated ground to my headlight buckets.

 

 

 

[nhojman]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! I will check them all out & report back with the results.

thanks again.