twinreds

Hi there fellow sufferers!

I had been (successfully I may add) fixing all the lights on my 86.5. The last one was the notorious passenger side rear side marker light, of which I had to replace the entire fixture (sans the cables), but I got it to work.
This weekend, I replaced the rear hatch switch on the passenger side, which was broken. The hatch did not operate, so I decided to leave it for later. Yesterday I took the car for a spin, and got the light warning. Surprisingly, the rear marker was not working. I pulled the tool tray and look for the cable inside, As I pulled the tray, I noticed a red cable that seemed to be off the harness of the hatch. I pushed it in and, voila!, the hatch motor cycled once, but the switch still didn't seem to operate the hatch. As I prepared to check the side marker cable, now I noticed that the marker on the back light assembly is not working either... Reverse, signal and brake seem to work.
I am such an idiot....

1- did I alter something by connecting all these things to have made the circuit go bang?
2- I cannot sense any power getting to either the side or the rear marker with a testing light, where could I have screwed up so badly?
3- I pulled the fuse, it seems to be OK, and the cables to all the lights seem healthy.

Please help me, all these lights were perfectly working before I messed up!!!!
(btw, I couldn't care less if the hatch system works at this point).

Thank you
Miguel

OTR18WHEELER

Sound like a loose ground wire, or an incorrect + - connection was made.
Research your connections.
Are all of the bulbs the nickel base type?, they should be. Cooper based bulbs are a no no.

twinreds

To resuscitate and give closure to this seemingly unpopular thread:
1- I looked at everything that every thread about this recommends, no results
2- I finally mustered some courage and followed the scariest recommendation for me and pulled down the parcel tray, disconnected the bulb control module and did not see anything wrong with it.
3- I literally rubbed gently the wires going to the harness on the male side of the module and voilá, the lights were on.
4- I kept them on while putting everything together and they stayed on.
5- I turned them off and on again and they worked
6- I worked the hatch release switches (for which reconnection I blamed for the problem) and it still worked.

In conclusion, a happy ending with me still scratching my head. Do I have to replace the module?

Finally, I have to say this community is amazingly helpful, even when you have to put together the big puzzle and your posting might seem not very interesting to chip in.
Thank you all. I'm a better man today.

Snark Shark

You might have some cracked solder inside the module. There's a heavy induction coil in there that puts a lot of stress on the solder every time you drive over a bump. I fixed mine by reflowing the solder. Simply placing a soldering iron on each connection just long enough to melt it. Don't apply too much pressure or you might push the components out of the circuit board.

You can't easily see the solder melting, so practice on a spare piece of solder first, so you know how long it takes to melt.

SQLGuy

IIRC, the hatch release motor is triggered by ground applied from the release switch. Once the hatch pops a bit open, ground from the pin switch at the bottom of the receiver keeps current flowing through the motor until it completes its cycle.

If the hatch pin switch doesn't work reliably, the hatch release won't, either. I have a keyless hatch release on mine, and the typical symptom I had (because of a bad pin switch), was that the motor would stop at the wrong place, and then would cycle again when I opened the driver door, where the pin switch was in better shape.