Bronco638 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 Truck: 1980 F-150 Flare Side I'm going to start working on my truck and job one is removing/dis-assembling the bed. I'd like to remove the taillights and license plate frame. I checked the EVTM and see that there's a connector for both the taillight wires and license plate frame light wire. However, the EVTM isn't very descriptive of where the two connectors are. I believe the connectors are C1213 and C1214. The location is supposed to be on the "D Pillar"? Also, the license plate light power wire is crudely hacked into the power wire for the left side taillight. Based on the EVTM, this is wrong (as is the grounding wire which has an eyelet on the end of the wire and grounds under the bolt that holds the bracket to the bed). I believe ground point G1001 and G1004 are shown in the diagram but aren't obvious on the truck itself. Any help is much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 Did you look at the illustrations at the end of the chapter? A is beside the windshield, B behind the door, C in front of the cap window and D at the rear corner.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco638 Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 Did you look at the illustrations at the end of the chapter? A is beside the windshield, B behind the door, C in front of the cap window and D at the rear corner.... I guess I didn't get that far in the EVTM, no (stupid me). Sticking my head under the truck doesn't reveal any grounding locations that appear to be factory. I can't believe Ford would ground the license plate light by capturing a grounding eyelet under the license plate frame's mounting bolt. I'll keep digging. EDIT: it appears as if the license plate light ground (G1004) is "attached to the lower L.H. side panel". I guess that could mean the panel that runs under the tail gate, the width of the bed. The ground points (G1001 & G1002) for the taillights are "on 'D' pillar reinforcement, forward of the L.H. rear lamps". Sounds like that's part of the bed, too. I need a bigger flashlight.... Any thoughts about those C connectors for the taillights? They must be farther forward, along the frame. I don't see those connectors even mentioned in the Component/Location/Description boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 I guess I didn't get that far in the EVTM, no (stupid me). Sticking my head under the truck doesn't reveal any grounding locations that appear to be factory. I can't believe Ford would ground the license plate light by capturing a grounding eyelet under the license plate frame's mounting bolt. I'll keep digging. EDIT: it appears as if the license plate light ground (G1004) is "attached to the lower L.H. side panel". I guess that could mean the panel that runs under the tail gate, the width of the bed. The ground points (G1001 & G1002) for the taillights are "on 'D' pillar reinforcement, forward of the L.H. rear lamps". Sounds like that's part of the bed, too. I need a bigger flashlight.... Any thoughts about those C connectors for the taillights? They must be farther forward, along the frame. I don't see those connectors even mentioned in the Component/Location/Description boxes. Gary doesn't have the 1980 EVTM broken out into separate images that I can paste a URL into the insert image tab, so you're gonna have to deal with screen shots, sorry... There's a good description of the connector and location given. Maybe somebody with a first year Bronco can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 As far as I know 1980 had old school license plate lights.. it was done like the dentside trucks and not like 81-86. The fixture will ground itself on the bumper and just 1 wire feeding power to the license plate light fixture. Those 1 wire fixtures go bad and I usually just replace them with this https://www.autozone.com/exterior-lighting/license-plate-lighting/p/hopkins-towing-solution-round-license-plate-light/378034_0_0Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco638 Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 As far as I know 1980 had old school license plate lights.. it was done like the dentside trucks and not like 81-86. The fixture will ground itself on the bumper and just 1 wire feeding power to the license plate light fixture. Those 1 wire fixtures go bad and I usually just replace them with this https://www.autozone.com/exterior-lighting/license-plate-lighting/p/hopkins-towing-solution-round-license-plate-light/378034_0_0 Flare Side truck so I have the 'outboard' taillights with the separate license plate bracket with the lamp over the plate. I looked under there last night and there's no grounding point anywhere to be seen (not on the frame, not on the bed). There doesn't seem to be a ground wire as part of the harness that runs back there (which would be correct per the EVTM as the ground point would be on the frame/bed). The taillights are in a plastic housing but they ground thru the three mounting screws that attach to the bed via tack welded brackets. EDIT: I crawled under the bed again and can see where the wiring for the taillights meets the main harness along the frame rail. There's a big wad of electrical tape. So, based on that and the fact that there's three wires running to each light, I'm almost positive the taillights aren't original. I'm willing to bet that the license plate light isn't original either. The wiring colors don't match the EVTM to boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Flare Side truck so I have the 'outboard' taillights with the separate license plate bracket with the lamp over the plate. I looked under there last night and there's no grounding point anywhere to be seen (not on the frame, not on the bed). There doesn't seem to be a ground wire as part of the harness that runs back there (which would be correct per the EVTM as the ground point would be on the frame/bed). The taillights are in a plastic housing but they ground thru the three mounting screws that attach to the bed via tack welded brackets. EDIT: I crawled under the bed again and can see where the wiring for the taillights meets the main harness along the frame rail. There's a big wad of electrical tape. So, based on that and the fact that there's three wires running to each light, I'm almost positive the taillights aren't original. I'm willing to bet that the license plate light isn't original either. The wiring colors don't match the EVTM to boot. Sorry,... I get into a lot of threads and I was looking at your name, and not your sig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rembrant Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 The Flareside taillights did not have a ground wire at all...at least the earlier ones didn't. I have heard reports that Ford added a ground wire to the tailights later on, like in 1985 or 1986, but I've never seen one, and there's no documentation of one ever having existed. There were only three wires going to each of the rear tailights...one for brake, one for turn signal, and one for reverse light. The tallight housing was grounded through the three mounting studs to the mounting bracket, which was grounded to the bed. The only ground wire in the back of the Flaresides was for the small 194 bulb that illuminated the license plate. It was a short wire and was grounded to the frame on the left rear corner, just a few inches from the light itself. When I installed new rear taillights on the Flaresides I built, I ran a dedicated ground wire from one of the mounting studs directly to the frame. They will work much better this way. The Flareside beds were terrible grounds lol. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rembrant Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Here's a snip from the 1985 EVTM. You can see below that the Flaresides and Chassis Cabs had no ground wires...they were only grounded by the three mounting studs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco638 Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 Here's a snip from the 1985 EVTM. You can see below that the Flaresides and Chassis Cabs had no ground wires...they were only grounded by the three mounting studs. @ArdWrknTrk (Jim) - no worries, I wasn't trying to be snide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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