[Peugeot-L] 1981 505s TD Tail lights and electrical troubleshooting

Hello all
My daughter and I spent the entire afternoon at the Department of Motor Vehicles. She is 16 and wanted to trade in her drivers permit for a drivers licence. I gave her a quick familiarization course on our new car. It took me a little fiddling to find the horn button, when the gal came out to check the car to see if it was safe to take the driving test in, we noticed the left rear taillight was either dim due to the black smoke from the tail pipe or it was not working. I used all my technical savvy and gave the lamp assembly a little whack and the turn signal gave a weak wink or two. Everything worked well enough for the driving test, thanks to tolerant DMV employees. We came out from under the fluorescent lamps nearly drained of life but carrying two shiny licences. One for my teenager and one for the back of our 505.

With daylight savings time here we have a few hours of light after work. I used my time to pull the tail light assembly. After I saw the way the French designed the circuit board back in the eighties, I fired up a soldering gun and began the straight forward task of cleaning ultra dirty contacts and connectors. Didn't the designers think dirt and smoke would go right inside the tail light assembly if they didn't weather proof it? Oh well, at least it was not getting moisture in there. The metal was corrosion free for the most part. The circuit board looked kind of cheesy at first, but I found that the way the sockets are designed it is easy to slide a piece fine grit sand paper in and clean the contacts. Unfortunately, I still had no power getting to any of the bulbs. I put a test light to the circuit board and found the contact which was blinking. Power was making it to the base of the lamp housing.

Unlike the dash cluster which has flimsy plastic printed wiring the tail light was heavy gauge copper traces on BakeLite. I scraped the oxidation from the brass lamp holders where they were supposed to be contacting the traces, soldered the first one and tried the turn signals, bingo! Before I put the tools away I checked the other circuits. Crap, no Brake, park, or running lights on either side! After soldering the rest of the lamp bases, I got the brake light back. Still no tail lights. Crap had they been out when I took my hundred mile test drive the on Sunday? This was not good. I located the fuse box in the engine compartment, some twerp lost the fuse identifier, I had to substitute them one at a time, wasting fifteen minutes. Think, what is the connection here? Or lack of connection if you will? Front running lights are on??? Back to the trunk with a shop light and a test light. Is there power anywhere back there? Nope. Why? then I recalled the trunk cover facing the fuel tank fell down the other day and I saw some funky looking wiring in there. I had already pulled the side covers to look and probe, no side lights or licence plate lights. I pulled the front cover. there was some kind of messed up looking connector hanging the with black tape falling off it. Black tape does not inspire a lot of confidence that the electrical work was done by a pro. We use heat shrink tubing. Anyway, I gave the plug a tug and a bunch of lights came on briefly. Good enough to encourage me. I took the whole thing apart and replaced the push-on connectors and installed a new piggy back to replace the weird looking three way plug which was not working.

I haven't had so much fun working on anything in I can't remember how long. Very inspiring this Peugeot. So far it is very easy to work on. By the way while I was poking around in the trunk, there is a metal box with wires by the wheel jack. Any idea what it might be?

There it is.
Brian Rodgers

--
High tech in the wild wild west.
www.outfitnm.com
My cool old machines:
1981 Peugeot 505s TD
1974 Mercedes 250
1974 BMW Bavaria
1956 International Utility 460 Tractor


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