front park lights and side marker lights come on with the car running or with the key just in the run position ,not running, fronts only . Rear light and markers seem to act normal only come on with the switch, anyone have any idea why it would do that , ( 1970 maverick)
Sounds like jury riggin' to me... The tail, license, park & front marker are all supposed to be connected together... With your symptom not only are circuits separate, they are being controlled individually as well...
I think all the lights including the brake lights come on with the switch off...( except the turn signals)
With key off if you turn the lights all the way on everything works except the front side markers (no turn signals) but with the car running and the headlights turned off , the front side markers are lit and so are the front running lights The rear lights are off unless you turn the headlights on. And the turn signals work and so do the hazards so it's like everything works perfect except for what I described
I would be looking in three areas .... Primarily, bad grounding. Secondarily a short between "ignition on" and the line for the front marker lights, or a faulty light switch. Lights coming on when something else is turned on, a lot of times, is that has now become the best ground path when the main ground has failed. Clean up motor grounds and motor to chassis grounds, including removing paint and grease in those areas, and you may see this go away.
That's the puzzling part I tested every ground with a test light and they all tested good, I will keep looking though, not going to give up till I find it .
I dunno if it's possible to connect(at least without hacking), but is there any possibility it has the wrong cluster??? I Know some of the circuit traces fed different circuits in later years... Or maybe ign switch/column has been swapped?? If radio power and dash lights were combined(on same connector for orig radio) the dash lights and parks can burn with ign on...
I'm liking the idea about the radio power and dash light lead. Very good thought. That "banana clip" (if that is what it is really called) going into the cluster could be a problem, too. I had weird issues once when the bottom half backed out of the gauge cluster.
