tail light problem


I'm having a problem that I can't track.

It's a std 2 wire setup. The brake lights work when the headlights are off (I checked and have12v at the 1stwire on both sides), when the HL's are on the brake lights stop working and the tailights don't come on(I checked and have 12v at both wires on both sides). When I let off the brake with the HL's on the taillights still don't come on (I checked and now have 12v at the 2nd wire on both sides). So i'm uber confused cause according to the vt meter everything should be working??? I have tried multiple bulbs to make sure no internal bulb shorts.

Help??????

 

Sounds like you have a grounding problem. The ground connection may be rusty or the ground wire broke. To check this theory just run a jumper wire from a known good ground to the metal part of the light socket. It the light works, you found your problem.

 

shorts are *****.

 

Yeah man. Ive done a few older (30+ years old) cars and these older wiring harness get funny and ground when they want, could be as much as sitting down in the passanger seat to get the wire to move that much and ground or unground. I would look at the wires.

 

I think i'm going to officially turn in my man card.

Sorry to trouble everyone - I have found out that self grounding sockets work much better when you install them into the tail lamp housings that they are supposed to ground out on (right here is where i'm banging my head on the desk repeating over & over, "stupid-stupid-stupid"). thanx for the quik responses - and i'm just going to go over here in the corner and be quiet now.