My 1965 Riv has a tail light problem which I assume is caused by a bad ground. The tail lights and brake lights work normally. With the head lights/tail lights on, putting on the right turn signal causes the left side tail lights to go out. What is the best way to access/remove the tail light assembly and exactly how does the assembly ground to the car? Thanks in advance.

Jim,

If your lights are working normally otherwise, rather than try to look for a ground problem, look at the turnsignal switch on the steering column. It sits atop the column under the dash. It is adjustable. There's a screw on each side that holds the switch in place. Loosen those screws and make some very small adjustments in the switch. There's also a wire that runs through the column that hooks the turn signal switch to the lever on the column. This wire will sometimes break, get bent, stretch, or ??? and cause some problems. If you have a chassis manual, look at what it suggests for adjustment of the switch. There are others on the forum who can tell you how to fix the wire problem. What you have to do will make a difference if you have a tilt wheel.

Ed

Jim,
Sounds like a bad ground to me. Radio Shack has a very inexpensive set of jumper wires with alligator clips on them, you can use them to jumper your tail light housings to a known good ground. If the turn signals work normally without the head lights or tail lights on, it is not your turn signal switch that is causing the issue. There is another weird problem that I have found, sometimes a dual filament bulb has a failure of one filament, then the failed filament falls across the god filament and causes voltage back feeds. That is real fun to find!
Keep us posted!
Tim

I put a jumper wire between the tail light housing and the frame, and the lights worked normally. I was going to drop the bumper to solder jumper lines when I had an idea. I removed the jumper wire and had the same old problem. I removed the jumper, and replaced the two 1157 bulbs on the left side with new ones. With two new bulbs and the jumper line removed the turn signals work normally.
Don't you just hate it when the easiest fix is the correct one!