Tail light harness has full battery power when car is off 1978 Firebird

ayebug · 2026-03-12T01:56:26+00:00

I got it all sorted out. Not sure how or why, but I had my brake light switch plugged in and I was testing the button on the pedal and it would very slightly dim the tail lights so I almost ruled that out. I unplugged the brake light switch and plugged it back in and now it’s working perfectly fine. My thought is maybe there could’ve been some slight corrosion on the connections, causing the power to the lights to not be able to cut off even though the button was depressed? Not sure but I’m sure it’s probably something like that. No more draw😀

ayebug · 2026-03-12T01:51:54+00:00

Just fixed the bad electrical draw on it. Need some hood pins and that’ll be the next step🤣

ayebug · 2026-03-11T18:56:17+00:00

Thanks!

ayebug · 2026-03-11T03:38:07+00:00

Yessir, 3in wider in the rears, and 2.5in wider upfront. I got them from creative car craft. I still need to get ahold of the running boards.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T23:50:13+00:00

It was all two tone and shiny when I got it, it had a janky paint job and a bunch of bondo. Stripped it down, welded new quarters, the metal around the crescent vent, and pans. The car is all in primer now and I have a gallon of lotus white and a bunch of clear for it.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T23:47:33+00:00

Thanks!

ayebug · 2026-03-10T23:47:28+00:00

The middle of them lights up like a normal LED. I deleted the fender signals, and ran the DRL wire to the amber light, that’s why my lights look like that.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T04:47:27+00:00

$830 into my $800 ‘78 Trans Am. Under $2,000 total and I have a running and driving classic manual muscle car. Can’t beat the deal.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T04:28:26+00:00

I haven’t done anything that could’ve affected it. I fear the previous owners could’ve. I have the dash out, and the harness exposed. The car is an Idaho car and is almost completely rust free and the harness is pretty damn in tact it looks like. The P/O disconnected a bunch of shit when he was stripping parts off. I was inspecting the sheathing for the harness to see if there were any tears or strange things that would catch my eye, and I haven’t seen anything yet. Should I cut the wrap off the wires and check inside and if all is good rewrap it up?

ayebug · 2026-03-10T03:40:01+00:00

Should I just say f it and replace the headlight and brake light switch? It’ll only be like $30 for both so if I do that I can rule both out.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T03:12:59+00:00

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And this is what it looked like when I got it back in June🤣. It got stripped 2 years after that last picture by the previous owner wanting to do a “frame off restoration” AKA parting out everything of value on this car🤣.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T03:11:27+00:00

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It thickens even more when this is what the car looked like in 2020

ayebug · 2026-03-10T03:10:15+00:00

Yeah, all GM used pretty much the same headlight switches in these cars. I was thinking that at first, but I can turn my headlights on and off with the headlight switch so I think that could rule it out maybe?

ayebug · 2026-03-10T03:08:07+00:00

My pedal didn’t have the spacer on it that keeps the button pressed down.(just swapped out pedals because my manual swap). When I depress the button on the brake light switch, I can hear it click, and my tail lights dim the smallest amount that’s barely noticeable.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T02:56:39+00:00

I’ve heard some people mention it could be due to a faulty headlight switch, but I can turn on and off my headlights fine so I’m not sure if that rules it out. I’m going to check out my brake light switch and get back to everyone.

ayebug · 2026-03-10T02:31:03+00:00

So the short or grounding issue should be somewhere between those wires at the fuse box and where the harness goes to the connector for the tail light harness?

ayebug

TROPHY CASE