Tail light on truck blew

[wily]

I forgot to unplug my trailer lights before putting the boat in tonight...and now one of my drivers side tail light...and the license plate light...and my boat trailer lights aren’t working 

i looked at the fuses in the truck but they look ok...what do you guess it is?  A bad ground or something?  I’m not very mechanical...the trailer is old but the lights worked...

thanks

[fishinwrench]

Drop the tailgate, 2 screws hold the tail light assembly in.  Check it with a test light  (brown wire).  

[wily]

Thanks for the help...Sounds easy but I’m a bonehead...will let you know what I find...thanks

[wily]

I took it apart...where do I hook the roach clip to?  I have one of the test lights with the pointy end...looks like a screw driver

i don’t know what I’m doing...I tried hooking clip to the body to ground it...still not working

i tried to test the 4way and none of those lit up either?

thanks

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, wily said:

I took it apart...where do I hook the roach clip to?  I have one of the test lights with the pointy end...looks like a screw driver

i don’t know what I’m doing...I tried hooking clip to the body to ground it...still not working

i tried to test the 4way and none of those lit up either?

thanks

Hook the roach clip to any good clean ground on the truck (frame, bumper, ect).  Definitely not on the receiver hitch.... that's the worst ground source ever.

Poke one of the lights that ARE working to verify you have a good ground.   

I don't think you've blown a fuse or BOTH tail lights on the truck would be out.

What happens when you hit the blinkers ?

You have a bad connection/open circuit somewhere.  Probably the easiest place to start tracing back from would be the license plate light. 

The truck still has a tail light out when the trailer pigtail is unplugged, right ?  

 

[liphunter]

Hate to ask the obvious. But sometimes we overlook the easy. Did you check the bulbs? 

[wily]

Ya...the tail light is out now all time...the blinker works on both sides

nothing on boat works

thanks

[Basfis]

I think there are fuses in the engine compartment in addition to in the dashboard. I had to replace one on one truck I had but don’t recall which year model it was. 

[fishinwrench]

Only one 15A fuse protects the tail light circuit on a Chevy.  If one tail light works then the fuse is not blown.

[wily]

We went ahead and took it this morning early...got into some crappie while white bass fishing

that crappie is an 1o or 11 inch fish...the white bass was 17

headed home now to see what I can do with the lights...thanks for help...will keep you posted