[1968_Cougar_Boy]

Alright so here's the quick background on it.

68 Cougar XR7. It has an electronic sequencer that I installed when I rebuilt the car 7 years ago. I have not had any problems with the unit until about a year ago and now I can't figure out what's going on.

When I have the lights out of the taillight housing they will sequence normally. However when I install them into the taillight housing I will only get blinks from lights 1 and 2, the 3rd will try and sometimes will and sometimes won't. This is the case for both sides, yet when I have the lights out of the housings they function just fine. If I have one side in the taillight housings and the others not inside then the side that is out of the housing will sequence the way it's supposed to, but the side that is in will not.

So any ideas? Cause I'm out of ideas since it's acting so weird after working just fine. The only thing I did was remove the taillight housings to repaint the grill portion. After the install they worked just fine too, but now something has gone wrong.

 

[68XR-7Cat]

It sounds like it could be a ground problem. I've seen something similar. Make sure that the openings in the tail light housing where the bulb sockets mount are clean and making good contact.

 

[woodsnake]

+1. I would say that is exactly the problem.

 

[Bad69cat]

Also - test your housing to body for continuity - sounds like you moved it around enough somehow to lose that connection/ground and it's not staying solid. Wiggle and jiggle things while testing and you may find the source....(Using those little alligator clips on your meter work very well to free up your hands while testing/looking for issues if you have them)

 

[1968_Cougar_Boy]

Thanks guys. I'll mess around with the grounding tomorrow to see if that fixes it.

 

[1968_Cougar_Boy]

So this may sound a bit silly; but with the taillight housings do they ground to the car by the studs that hold the lights onto the car, or do they ground out by the metal around the bulbs themselves that stick into the trunk? If that makes any sense?