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Okay…I think I already know the answer to this, but I’m looking for some confirmation.

I think my tail lights and brake lights are wired backwards. I believe that the brake lights should be the top socket and the tail lights the bottom. This is based on the wiring diagram depictions and that I don’t think the lens will fit correctly otherwise since the brake light is a larger bulb.

However, my car has these wired with the tail light on top and the brake light on the bottom

That said, it could also make sense for the tail light to be on top since that would best illuminate the license plate.

The wiring diagram appears to show the outermost part of the drawing as the top and the innermost as the bottom. It seems to show this with the tail lights and head lights.

The attached photo shows how I think the bulbs should be oriented with the brake light on top. Just looking for confirmation.

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Just my but if those are the only two bulbs in the housing and there is no reflector arrangement to direct light toward the slot then I think your statement about the small bulb being on top to also act as the license light would be more logical. Is there any way the socket mounting arrangement could have been rotated and small bulb should actually be on top and more in line with the slot?

If not, with the tail light bulb low and pointing a bit downward it would seem most of the light for the license lens would be blocked by the much larger upper bulb.

Do yourself and the rest of the world a favor by painting the inside of that housing bright white. It will make an amazing difference in how much light comes through the lense.

Tail light is top and should be the smaller of the two. Brake light is bottom and should be the larger of the two.

As said, its made so the tail light illuminates the plate on the left side housing.

Also you light plate is installed upside down. The brake light should be pretty centralized in the housing and the taillight close to the top of the it.

Perhaps someone swapped the right and left inards.

For reference:

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Thanks, everyone…This really helps. It looks like I’ve got some fixing to do. Based, on Kevins photo, it does appear that the internals got switched from right to left.

I do plan to paint the inside white, but right now the focus is just getting everything working correctly.

I pulled the tail light buckets and switched the internals. This makes much more sense now.


Thanks for the help everyone!

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Looking good!