'77 308-Can anybody explain why my lft blinker activates rt reverse light, and vvs?

Sounds like the fuse box, they are very poor, make a search on the chat there are a few threads on rebuilding them, you would be amazed at how many things work better once it has been overhauled.

 

If the lights were OK previously, and no one has changed anything, then the problem is almost certainly a bad ground connection at the rear lighting circuit. I'm not personally familiar with the system on a 308, but there is probably a black wire attached to one of the mounting studs for the rear tail light assembly, and it is probably loose or corroded. You might also check to see if one of the rear bulbs has noticeable corrosion around its base. This should be easy/inexpensive to fix.

 

The bulb holders are probably upside down

 

That's what I was just thinking. Do your reverse lights flash like a turn signal or do they come on solid?

 

Sometimes in my XJS when I hit my brakes, my headlights would turn on. It was the strangest thing. It was a faulty relay.
I'm sure yours is a simple wiring problem. Do you have the owners manual? There's a wiring diagram in there of the entire electrical system.

 

I think you have a bad ground somewhere. Start with cleaning all the signal bulbs and making sure their grounds are good.

 

Greg -- Can you describe the fault more clearly? For example, are you saying that when you put the left blinker "on":

1. Only the reverse lamp comes "on", and it flashes like the LH turn light should

or

2. Only the reverse lamp comes "on" and it does not flash

or

3. The left blinker flashes normally, and the reverse light flashes in unison

or

4. The left blinker flashes normally and the reverse lamp is "on" but not flashing.

I hope you've got the problem that Kris N. described (and the bulb holders are just swapped), but your symptom description is too vague.

 

All of the above should be checked, but I'd bet a fiver that Miltonian is right and it's a bad earth/ground. 9 times out of 10 with these types of rear lamp issues this is the cause.

Laymans explination for bad earth/ground...

What actually happens is that when you turn on the bulb, the electricity can't "get out" of the circuit through the earth because the connection is bad.

However, inside the lamp all the bulbs are connected to a common earth rail which is then connected to the chassis. Therefore, the electricity flows through the earth rail, then "backwards" through one of the other bulbs on the earth rail, then through the wiring loom to yet another bulb somewhere else in the circuit and then to earth. This is effectively connecting the two bulbs in the lamp in series. They both light up, but dimly.

After all this pontification you'll probably write back that the bulb was upside down

RF.

 

Three lamps in the amber/reverse unit .......upper and lower are amber lens, middle is reverse..

I have the wiring diagrams, brother.....talk to me........

I know where a wrecking yard has a set of books as well.......

I say a painter messed around with your wiring leads... I've seen red and amber lenses/units in reversed!!!!

Darn painters.......

I actually have some spare metal bridge assemblies out of my old tailights..let me know! They are kicking around underfoot in the truck.....

 

Different wires for each lamp/color...they landed the yellow lamp lead onto the white lamp terminal......

 

What? Are you saying the LH reverse light flashes in unison with the RH turn signal?

The simple thing we're suggesting to check is to make sure that the reverse light bulb+holder and the turnsignal bulb+holder are not just swapped in physical position (but that would be true only for the #1 symptom) -- i.e., the reverse bulb+holder goes in the "white center" lens.

 

Lord Lucas strikes again? Or is this an Italian cousin?

Ken

 

Not that complicated but there are EIGHT lamps to make two red lights two yellow lights and two white lights...........

No the up side,....... they never all quit at once!

 

Yes, that's more serious -- sorry I had a hard time understanding your description.

Per Miltonian's suggestion, you could try adding a jumper wire from any black (N) wire in the tailight wiring harness to a good ground on the engine block/heads/camcover -- if the problem goes away on that side, then you need to find/refresh/restore the stock ground connection for the taillight wiring harness.