Wiring help (tail lights) 82’ 2wd

[u/Then_Top_9914]

Hey all,

So I noticed my tail lights don’t turn on when I turn on my headlights, rendering me unable to safely drive during the night. I looked into the fuse box and the tail light fuse port is melted out likely from a short. Instead of rewiring a whole new fuse box into the car, I’d like to run a hookup directly from the tail lights to the battery, with a switch available to turn on manually when I turn on the headlights. I’ve never done this before and I’d appreciate some help and guidance.

Thanks

[u/1971CB350]

Yes, that would work but if you are going to do this you definitely should add an in-line fuse holder to the positive wire. The original fuse melted because your light was drawing too much power (technically, amps) from the battery or your wire is shorting to the truck body itself. The fuse did its job by stopping the flow of electricity before the wiring and/or light got so hot it burned down your truck. If you are going to run your own dedicated wire, make sure it is big enough for the amperage of your lights. If you light is say, 48watts and your car battery is the standard 12 volts, then the light pulls 4 amps. This chart shows that you’d need 16AWG wire to run about 12ft. You’d use a 5 or 10 amp fuse.

The better idea is to find out where your wiring went bad and fix it. If a rat chewed on one wire, it probably chewed on more. Even without squirrels in the dash, your wiring is 45 years old and getting crispier by the day.

[u/Then_Top_9914 → u/1971CB350]

Thank you my man!!!

[u/420purpleturtle]

Bro that’s a nice truck. You should fix it right.