Minor Axis

I've been driving my S-10 for the last two years with the left rear running lights out. Soon after my wife had taken the truck on a trip to St Louis to deliver a piece of furniture (a U-Haul hookup was involved), the left rear light when out along with the left tag light. However the left brake light still worked.

Last summer I broke out my manual and went looking for the fuses. The fuse marked as the left tail light was not blown. Then I went underneath and all of those wires back there are bundled and very difficult to get them unbundled, so I gave up.

My son who is in the USAF was home on leave from the USAF and he was driving it and got pulled over. No ticket was issued, but it gave me incentive to look again. I decided that the U-Haul hookup only involved replacing the tail lights with ones with leads on them so a trailer could be hooked up and that was not the problem. All of the wire bundles underneath looked untampered with.

I purchased some wire and splicing joints with the intent of running a wire from the right side over to the left side to get the left tail light working again. Then I did two things which dissuaded me from doing this. First I crawled under the bed again and looked reconfirming that it was not a problem where the wires had been messed with. Again in addition those wires were bundled up tight, and I really did not want to have to undo them. Second, when I took the tail light off, I realized there were 3 lights out- the left tag light, and two lights in the tail light unit, a dedicated night light, and the tail light portion of the main tail/brake light was not illuminating. A little voice in the form of my son, said "check the fuses again".

Well I broke out the manual again, checked the fuse again (fuse block located in the engine compartment). Nope it was not blown, but I decided I would do a random check of all the 10 amp fuses. In the manual diagram I noticed another fuse labeled "fog light not used", that was right next to where the left rear tail light fuse was supposed to be and in that slot there was a 10 amp mini-fuse. Hmm, I pulled it out and it was blown. And when I replaced it, the left tail light came on!

So I made a pen and ink correction in my manual and probably saved $100 on a service call. Lesson: the manual can be in error.

__________________
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

ssl

True, or you could have read the fuse diagram wrong, although I highly doubt it!

Good thing you did not have to waste money on the service call!

__________________
The surface is calm
The deep sea churns violently
The shore is different

Goodbye

BaggedSplash

typical S-10 owner not knowing shit!! lol....j/p. i give all my S-10 owning buddies a rough time but then again they gimme crap too for driving a Ranger.

anywho, congrats on fixing it up. its always something little and cheap that messes things up

Minor Axis

In hind sight, undoing all the cables in the rear of the truck to splice in a connection would have been a mistake, and for all I know might have overloaded the single fuse.

__________________
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

Minor Axis

Hey I remember those days and my stupid Ford friends.

__________________
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"