On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:31:26 GMT, (RickyC)
wrote:

Now everything works
fine acxept for the tail lights which don't come on

Two fuses ? Both circuits failed ? Start looking at the common
factor; the switch.

Is there a parking switch ? Can fiddling with that make them come on ?

Get your test lamp out (buy one if you don't have one - Blackspur do a
quite decent one for a couple of quid). Test for voltage on the
bulbholder contact, with the bulbs out. Test the output of the light
switch.

Turn the indicators or hazards on, then have an assistant press the
brake pedal. Do the stop lights come on as expected, or do they cause
problems with the indicators ? If so, then it's time to look for earth
faults on the light cluster. (Having a Ford badge is usually an
indication of these)

Do _NOT_ use a meter to test car electrics. They'll still register 12V
OK even through a poor connection, but it can't deliver enough current
to work properly (I once wasted three days unnecessarily
eviscerating a Citroen XM dashboard by having done just that ! )

You'll be wanting a Haynes too, for the wiring diagram colour codes,
if nothing else.

The tail light bulbs are perfectly OK

Are they the right bulbs ? Are they combined tail light and stop
bulbs, or separate ? If it's a fitting for a combined bulb, then
there are options for getting the wrong bulbs in there.

I also checked the two
tail light fuses.

Two fuses - one each side, pretty common on non-Brit vehicles for the
last few decades.

One good place to check is around the rear seat. The wiring loom to
the rear of the car passes through here somewhere and it's often
chafed by the seat, parcel shelf, spare wheel or some other big heavy
lump in the back. There may also be a multi-way connector around
here, which will be a good place to do some more testing and isolate
the fault to forwards or behind it.

When you need electrical bits to fix it, Vehicle Wiring Products (on
the web) do excellent mail order. Car electrics are much easier than
they're made out to be and very few pieces are maker-specific.