1981 Rabbit Truck Tail Light Problems

[FireRabbit]

My Brake Lights and Tail Lights wont work most of the time. I took them off and moved the wires around on the Left Side (the side where the main connection chord plugs in), and they turned on, but if i moved the light just a little they would go out again. One time i kicked the Tail Light gently and the lights turned on, but by the time i drove and then parked they were out again. I looked at the Bulb Sockets and the little metal piece that touches the Bulb is corroded, and the Wires have some holes in the outer shell. I looked at the Connection Plug Sockets for the Wiring and it had all this opaque white gunk on it... Is that some kind of conduction grease or is it some kind of corrosive gunk like you find on batteries? I dont know wether i need to just get whole new electrical system for the tail lights or if i can fix it with a few tricks. Any one got any suggestions?

[vwtyp133]

Clean all the wire terminal connections & light sockets with a fine stainless steel wire brush or medium wet & dry sandpaper. Uhh... make sure the battery negative is disconnected first! Don't forget to scrub clean all the ground connections, IMO the most frequent PITA when it comes to our wiring 'intermittents' as well as outright DNFs.

Yeah, once clean the connections can be assembled with some dielectric grease also. Dirty job, but good luck.

[Fatmobile]

Those light plugs come all the way apart and the pieces can be sanded clean on the contact areas,.. depending how corroded the connector is.
That's probably white lithium grease to reduce corrosion.

[FireRabbit]

I fixed the Problem! I unscrewed all the Grounding Wires and Unplugged the Electric Terminals on all the lights Front and Rear, then i cleaned them and added Di-Electric Grease. Then i got copper wire and replaced the corroded Grounding Strips inside the Light Bulb Socket. I had to bend the Wire in a special way so that no matter how much i moved it around it would maintain a connection. I had to do this for the whole Left Tail Light : Reverse, Turn Signal, and Brake/Tail Light. At first there was a Short in the Tail Light when i turned on the Head Lights: I could press the Brake with the Head Lights off and the Brake Light would shine, But when i turned on the Headlights niether the Tail Lights nor the Brake Lights worked. Once i cleaned the Terminals and used the Grease it all work with the proper Ground Connection!

I took Pictures but im having trouble uploading em to the forum... maybe ill post em another day