'91 base model has no tail light failure sensor!

['88 All-Trac]

I was going to pull the tail light failure sensor out of my '91 2wd to put in the All-Trac... Only to discover it doesn't have one!

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...-01_104613.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...-01_104618.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...-01_104637.jpg

I'm tempted to use it as a template to do a bypass on the All-Trac so I can do a writeup.

[white90dx]

You should be able to bypass it very easily...

Leave open:
Y-G (yellow, green tracer)
Y (yellow, no tracer)
W-B (White, black tracer)

Connect together:
G (green no tracer) with LG (light green, no tracer)
G-W (green, white tracer) with G-R (green with red tracer)

Before you do that, verify that there are only 7 wires going to the plug - let me know if I missed anything and I'll look at the diagrams again (I'm away from my car at the moment so I can't check). Use a good solder connection, because your rear marker and brake lights depend on it.

-Charlie

['88 All-Trac]

...Well, you've certainly made things easy. I don't know where the heatshrink is, though, so... Well, I don't have to leave for class for more than 2 hours so I should probably go find it.

Thanks a bunch, Charlie!


Edit: And yeah, there are only 7. I remember thinking that was really weird when I was fixing my little box.

Edit numbah 2!!: Brake pedal still lights up my tail lights, turning on my headlights still lights up the brake lights. Is there a secret to a rear light conversion? I updated the rear end to late-model Camry tail lights, could that have something to do with the weird lights? With the stock lights, I got the tal light failure light but nothing was actually broken. Maybe bad grounds? Ah, the joys of a second- or third-hand car.

[white90dx]

I would assume a bad ground...

I converted my '89 Alltrac to the '91 style tail lights with no modifications and no problems. The plugs are the same, etc.

Are any of the lights brighter/dimmer in each operating mode? (lights only, brakes only, brakes and lights) That would help diagnose which ground you should look at.

-Charlie

['88 All-Trac]

Originally Posted by white90dx

I would assume a bad ground...

I converted my '89 Alltrac to the '91 style tail lights with no modifications and no problems. The plugs are the same, etc.

Are any of the lights brighter/dimmer in each operating mode? (lights only, brakes only, brakes and lights) That would help diagnose which ground you should look at.

-Charlie

Well, I found the issue. When I installed the replacement lights, I only checked the bulbs for soundness of the filaments- the running light and the turn/brake (I might have that backwards) were in the wrong sockets in the driver's-side tal light. The single-filament bulb was causing a short between the regularly isolated circuits. Been chasing this issue for months!

All of the lights got brighter/dimmer with the brake pedal depressed, btw.

Moral of this story? Be sure your bulbs are installed properly!

[white90dx]

Originally Posted by '88 All-Trac

Well, I found the issue. When I installed the replacement lights, I only checked the bulbs for soundness of the filaments- the running light and the turn/brake (I might have that backwards) were in the wrong sockets in the driver's-side tal light. The single-filament bulb was causing a short between the regularly isolated circuits. Been chasing this issue for months!

All of the lights got brighter/dimmer with the brake pedal depressed, btw.

Moral of this story? Be sure your bulbs are installed properly!

Lol... yeah, well... the dual filament bulbs have non-symetric locking bumps that should have made it hard to swap them...

Glad you got it figured out.

-Charlie

['88 All-Trac]

Yeah, that's why I didn't think to check that. I replaced a bulb on the other side and saw that it was asymmetrical. I had kinda figured that whoever owned the Camry my tail lights came off of wouldn't have made such a cracked out mistake. Perhaps that's why it was in the yard- there wasn't anything else wrong with that particular car that I could see.

It almost sickens me, how many cherry Gen 2s I see in the yard. I don't know that I've ever seen one that had any real damage.

I even saw a near cherry All-Trac that just needed a driver's door go through the yard... I would have snagged it if I had a way to get it home at the time. Real heartbreaker, that one was.