Community Forums

pigeonrooste · 04-06-2011, 06:43 PM

I noticed a problem with my toad brake lights not working on my TS 40DSO3. I checked wiring and could not find any problems so I drove without them. When I got home I started trouble shooting and found the following. When the brake pedal is depressed both the brake lights and amber turn signal (L&R rear only) come on. I have checked all the lamps, checked and added new ground to the stoplight circuit and disconnected the wires going to the towing receptacle. I sure do need a fix for this.

frankdamp · 04-06-2011, 07:39 PM

If the rear lights have brake and turn signals in a single housing, I'd go check the grounding of those housings. It sounds as though the brake lights are grounding through the turn signal bulbs.

It can be a problem when the housings were designed to ground to a metal body and are used on a fiberglas one.

pigeonrooste · 04-06-2011, 10:02 PM

Thanks for the help.
The housings are all plastic. They have 3 sections, top is amber for turn signal the center is brake/tail and the bottom is backup light.
The ground wires go to each bulb socket. I tried running a known ground to the brake light ground and there was no change>>

pigeonrooste · 04-08-2011, 07:08 AM

I talked with Spartan yesterday and it seems that this might be normal. John said that Spartan ran two circuits to the rear of the chassis, stop and stop/turn. If TS used the stop/turn then both lights burn which is what is happening to me. I am always in the driver seat so I could not remember what the rear lights look like when they are on. Had the wife look and she thinks that both stop and turn light up when brake is applied. I can deal with that and my toad wiring works fine, just can't figure out why it originally had a 3 wire to 2 wire converter. Not to worry I guess as long as it is working again.