Ok silly question time... license plate lights wil not work

[Duane867]

Ok silly question time... license plate lights will not work

and I don't want a ticket out night fishing !
I replaced the bulbs with new bulbs. Looks like the genius engineer Jerry rigged some thing. He has spliced the original power wires for some reason or another. Maybe he removed a tow package electrical hook up ? I don't know. But I checked the splices and they seem fine enough. The old bulbs were burnt, replaced with new and nada. It could have been from me although I am not certain this is the same circuit or not ? The exterior courtesy light under the hood was shorted by corrosion and the bulb burnt out. I removed the clip and the wires fell out and sparked against each other. No fuses are blown though.

Any suggestions on rewiring the license plate lights to the break lights ?
Seems like an easy solution to me ? Same 12v wiring just different location
right ?

 

[HareRazor]

I had 2 issues with my license plate light bulbs. First the bulb sockets were corroded out so far the bulb wasn't making contact. I bought them from ford new for about $5 a piece. That fixed for about a month and there was a black little connector that the wires had broke apart from. I just cut it out and soldered the 3 wires back together. They were brown in color I believe. I would check to make sure that you are not getting 12v to the bulb socket first though, and I don't think I would wire it to the brake lights as every time you step on the brake or put on your turn signal your license plate would be flashing(which might be cool??).

 

[Duane867]

They are two stage bulbs in the rear brakes. One maintains the tail lights and a higher voltage ( I believe ) is applied to kick the bulbs up to the next stage when the pedal is depressed.
Different wiring for the turn signals.
I'll go out and re check the sockets and wiring again. It has to be something simple.

 

[HareRazor]

I don't remember how many bulbs there is in the tail lights on a ranger, but if it is anything like the trailer I wired last weekend(which it probably isn't) there was 2 wires going to the bulb and it grounded itself via the mounting bolts. 1 wire went to 1 filament in the bulb that was long and thin and I believed that did the tail lights and the other went to a thick short filament that did the brake and the turn signal. It may be similar to that and probably could just tap into the tail light wire elsewhere, but it might be less work to just find the broken wire if you are not getting voltage. It could always be the ground wire that is giving you troubles also.

 

[Duane867]

Just dawned on me I only see one wire connected at the sockets.
He has the brown wire connected to the black on each side, and the black wire on the harness side not connected to any thing.
Either there was a trailer harness in place he removed or he was bypassing a fuseable link maybe ? I thought I had saw one on the black wire on the passenger side.

Looking at the diagram on All data it looks like I have been yet again screwed by the genius engineer. Looks like both brown wires are hot and the black wires are grounds.
So he has the grounds to positive on each side. SO I think I just need to put brown to brown and twist the blacks together right ?
There is only one wire coming from each socket as well.

AND ... I noticed the new bulbs were 13v. Took them back and found out the only bulbs available are either 7v 13.5 or 13v but my old say 12v.

 

[HareRazor]

I am thinking if you hook the 3 browns together and the blacks to a ground it will probably work, but there should be 2 wires going to each of the bulbs.

 

[Duane867]

Ok so I figured it out.
Its a common ground system. 1 power wire to each and the grounds go to the frame which grounds the sockets via the metal to metal connection to the bumper through the frame. Ding bat removed the grounds and never replaced them. It must have been quite some time ago too because every thing is so rusty every where under there when I reconnected the grounds ( yes I ground a clean bare surface 1st ) to the correct grounding position nothing made ground to the plate lights still.
So I tried touching them to the outer sockets. They light up.
I wire brushed a clean surface on each and soldered the little suckers to each socket.
Done....finite... now I can go night fishing and not get a $350 ticket driving home through old Milford for no license plate lights. Yes they are that anal, and yes they are that high :-(

 

[modelageek]

and I don't want a ticket out night fishing !
I replaced the bulbs with new bulbs. Looks like the genius engineer Jerry rigged some thing. He has spliced the original power wires for some reason or another. Maybe he removed a tow package electrical hook up ? I don't know. But I checked the splices and they seem fine enough. The old bulbs were burnt, replaced with new and nada. It could have been from me although I am not certain this is the same circuit or not ? The exterior courtesy light under the hood was shorted by corrosion and the bulb burnt out. I removed the clip and the wires fell out and sparked against each other. No fuses are blown though.

Any suggestions on rewiring the license plate lights to the break lights ?
Seems like an easy solution to me ? Same 12v wiring just different location
right ?

you probably meant taillights not brakelights. get a multimeter and see if where you have power. it should not be to tough. haynes manual should have a wiring diagram

* Oooops........did not see the conclusion before i posted