[Richard]

Yeah, I know. when you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras. Only in Richard’s world does this bizarre reality happen. 

I bought a new toad. Maverick Hybrid. Took my time wiring up the lights. Diodes, shrink wrap, careful routing with a Newell quantity of zip ties, tinned ends, quality plugs, and such. 

Plugged it all in, and it’s wonky. Real wonky. One blinker doesn’t work, and the brake/running lights are asymmetrical. 

Ok, so it’s got to be me, some boneheaded miswire, or bad connection. So I start hours of troubleshooting checking the feed from the coach, making sure the colors match at the plugs, and feeding a 12V signal into the plug on the car. Still the same wonky behavior. I used a continuous ribbon cable from the front plug to the rear. No splices. I have voltage at the feed end but nothing at the exit for the turn signal. Ok, bad crimps or something. Cut off the ends and do it over. Same result. Voltage at one end , nada at the other. The wire had a discontinuity in it. Found by feeding in voltage and probing along the length of the wire. Voltage, voltage, voltage, NO voltage. Stripped the insulation to find a clean cut in the wiring. The insulation was intact. Go figure. OK, no problem, heat shrink butt splice, and the turn signal works. 

But wait there is more, what about the asymmetrical tail lights. Hmmmmmmm, triple check the color codes obtained from the interweb by a guy who has written a tome on the Maverick forums about how to wire the truck. It all looks to match what he posted. Swapped lights from side to side and the pattern stayed with the side not the light. Ok, that’s a clue, the wiring tapped into is wrong. Finally found an official Ford schematic. ARRRRGH, this guys wiring colors are WRONG. To give him the benefit of the doubt, let’s say, that Ford changed it from one model year to the next. 

Finally, working lights, I think I’ll go stream a couple episodes of My Pink Pony.