OEM Tail light wiring harness & plug..

[diesel4me]

Spent most of the afternoon trying to get my tail light working right on the drivers side of my '82 Stepside...an afternoon of frustration...I hate messing with wiring...

I found out the "brown" wire that runs the tail "running" lamp on the drivers side was dead,it must have a break somewhere between the plug that joins the wiring from both tail lamps, to the rubber plug that connects to the main wiring harness from the frame...

I had to cut and splice in another wire at that plug,so the light would work right--the turn signal wire was only holding together by a few strands right near the plug too,but I was able to strip it and connect it back together,but its rather cobbed and probably wont last long..

I need a new tail lamp too,maybe both,but fudged the one I have good enough to get by with for now,till I can go buy one (or a pair)..

The plug I am talking about is a molded rubber one,that is right under the tail gate--and the side of the tail lamp harness coming from the cab has 4 male prongs,two are vertical,and two are horizontal--the other "female" half of the harness that plugs into that, is what splits in two and provides the tail lamps with the power for the various lights..

I know I had one of those plugs "somewhere" I chopped off another truck,but I'll be dammed if I can find the stupid thing now..

I tried searching on google,cant even find a picture of that plug,I thought maybe Dorman or some other company would have one available by now...guess not...

I'd like to retain a plug there,but it appears no one has the OEM style plug--should I just use a 4 wire trailer plug instead?...
I kind of dislike those things,they are not very water proof..

I suppose I could go search for a factory one in a boneyard,but I'd rather use something fresh and new thats not already gangrene inside,if I could even find one...

 

[brian wafer]

unless you doing some sort of restoration ,to keep things original. just by pass the plug with your brown park wire while leaving the 3 others intact. dielectric grease could help in the plug.

 

[diesel4me]

I have been poking around online,and did find one place selling the OEM harness,just the rear part going from the lights to the main tail lamp harness where the plug is --its 89 bucks....not something I'd ever buy for it,it needs 90 bucks spent 20 other places first..

I cant understand why no one reproduces these plugs yet--Standard Ignition has a "repair connector" for nearly every other electrical item you can name on a vehicle,even late model ones!...it's not like tail light wiring never goes bad,you know?..the plug isn't bad internally,its the wires have failed, real close to where they come out of the plug where they were molded into it..the "male" plug on the main harness from the cab is in nice shape,its the female half going to the tail lamps that is the problem..kind of hate to butcher both halves of the harness, to change to a different plug..

I thought about buying one of those "T" fittings for trailer wiring,I could use one of those,but I'd be using the "trailer" wires to run the tail lamps--if I want to tow something,I'd have to piggyback the trailer lights to those wires too...

I think I'll go for a hike tomorrow in the junkyards--I should be able to find something there...even though I rarely drive after dark,it'll be dark at 4 pm soon,so I just assume have all my lights working,I dont need any tickets..have enough problems without that happening...

 

[Fordum]

Hang tight for a minute. I had a link to a place that had lots of OEM wiring. Let me see if I can find it.

 

[Fordum]

OK, good new, bad news.

Found the site. But its gonna take some searching to find the connector if they have it.

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Se...ing=Y&sort=13&search=gm&show=45&page=1&cat=88

Thats the link to the GM part. Let me know if you find it.

 

[diesel4me]

Thanks for the link...but they dont make one yet either,I searched all the pages..they have almost as many "repair harnesses" as Standard does..

Off to the "salvage yard" I guess.....I think I can make a fleetside or Suburban tailight harness work,the harness plug should be the same...doubt I'll find any stepsides !..

 

[campfire]

Why not simply splice the wire around the plug as suggested earlier? I'd rather have a good splice (even if it looks tacky) than a cruddy junkyard connector...

 

[diesel4me]

Why not simply splice the wire around the plug as suggested earlier? I'd rather have a good splice (even if it looks tacky) than a cruddy junkyard connector...

I already did splice it,and the lights are working..for now at least....but I know New England winters have a way of making wiring splices go bad pretty quickly..

I never got to the boneyard today,I had to go buy food,and I ended up cutting some firewood up,because its been getting darn cold here at night lately...now my back is fubared...

I'm just getting disgusted with the truck,a lot of things are rotting away on it like the inner fenders,the bed is pretty wasted,and the drivers side rocker panel is pop rivets and tin now..truck was very solid when I got it 11 years ago,now its starting to just be a rotbox..and the laundry list of things it needs fixed keeps getting longer..

I'm not sure if I'm even going to keep the stepside bed on it,or keep the truck,period..if I felt better,had more money to spend on it,I could fix everything on it fairly easy,and it still has potential,its been very reliable too...but its also 32 years old,and has been thru the mill...

I'd love to rip the bed off,resurect the flat bed I had on my '77 GMC and maybe make it a dump bed,I have the stuff to do it with,but my back craps out on me too quickly to think about doing that kind of bull work any more..

The more I look at it,the more I think it might be time to just use it as a yard truck to plow the driveway,maybe I should focus on fixing up the Suburban ,before that thing gets any worse from sitting..for the time being it is my only transportation though,so I am reluctant to start any "major" restoration or upgrades right now..

 

[JDNobodi]

I kinda had the same dilemma about keeping the molded rubber connector. My tail light wiring was fine but I needed to connect to my new wiring harness to the back. I hate to splice a pigtail to my new harness, so I cut off the rubber connector of my light harness and added an weather pack connector. That way it is easier to service in the future. All is well.