1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I'm just posting this for the next guy searching for it!
When the brakes were applied, instead of the brakelights coming on bright, all the taillights came on dimly, in addition to the front marker and backup illumination lights barely glowing.
Classic behavior for a ground problem, but I couldn't find it. All the body grounds looked clean and tight. It wasn't until I figured out how the plug comes out of the drivers taillight that I found the burned contacts for the ground.
The trunk ground comes from the body harness going to the drivers taillight, then branches over to the passenger taillight and the body ground located on the brace in the middle of the trunk under the floor hatch, at least on my '90 900T convert.
Cleaning and sanding the contacts failed to make a reliable connection. It would work a few times, then the all-lights glowing would return. The solution was (as has been pointed out in other posts on trunk ground issues) to make a new ground wire from the circuit board to the trunk ground point. I did it by looking at the bulb side of the circuit board, following the second contact on the right as you look at that side down to where it becomes a nice big square. I drilled a hole through that and ran a bolt through to the back, and tightened it down with a nut. Then I made up a couple wires with ring terminals, dropped them over the bolt, and put another nut on it and tightened it down. Then, run the other end to the ground point, put a ring terminal on and attach, and voila, reliable brake lights again! I can take pics if that isn't clear enough to someone, email me if you need them at ffpmdad at yahoo.
I'm not a big believer in coincidences, I'm wondering if this had anything to do with my mystery dash gauge lights coming on when the key was turned off. Time will tell.
posted by 66.240.56...
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.