Hello all, new to this but will give it my best shot. I bought a 97 Bird with the following electricl problems.
1. The radio comes on when I turn the parking lights on.
2. When I turn the parking lights on, 3 out the the 4 in front come on. With the parking light switch off and the igniton key on, the 4th light comes on. The first 3 stay off.
3. The left turn signal works correctly if the light switch is off. With the engine running it works correctly. When I turn the light switch on to light the head lights, the left turn signal blinks fast and so does the left head light. And on the dash the left arrow stays on, but all bulbs are new.
I pulled the fuse for the radio thinking maybe I was getting some kinda back flow to the light circuit, but that didnt help. I also cut the radio hot wire the wired it into the ACC circuit at the fuse panel. That made no difference either. Is there some sorta of light control module that oversees all this? Thanks for any help.

 

Somebody messed up the wiring pretty good. I would get a Haynes Manual It has a lot of the wiring diagrams in the back. Or if you know someone with the same model do some comparing.
Be patient and take your time following the wires. you will figure it out.

 

There is a pretty good possibility the wires for the radio are connected incorrectly.
But, since we have to start somewhere, and poor or none existent grounds can show up as some weird problems, lets get into why that left headlight is coming on.
I would suspect the ground for that particular section is open and the circuit is using the headlight itself for it's ground. Trace the three wires from that L/S headlamp plug. One of them is the ground . That wire/connection is either broken or has a poor connection. Tracing can be a little bit of a pain, but it's worth it when you find the poor ground. Check all the ground wires/connections in that L/F corner and you may find one that goes to a part of the sheet metal and maybe even to the negative cable itself. Checking them means, loosen and retightem the bolt to make sure the connection is complete or the wire may even be broken off.
Let us know what you found , then we can move on to the next steps.

 

Thanks guys, all that makes sense. The car does have some damage in that corner where the headlight/left turn signal is. I did replace both assemblies. I will get my meter out and start tracing. It will be the weekend before I can give any more details on what I find. Thanks again.

 

Well that was an easy fix. There was a bundle of ground wires on a single plug that was supposed to be connected to the frame via another connector. Now all lights work like they should and also the windshield wipers. Thanks!

 

Not sure if that correction corrected the part involving the radio, but I'm sure going to try hard to come up with a useful suggestion, once in a while, where somebody else does all the work. Glad you solved your vehicle's lighting problem and thanks for the update.

 

What area of the frame is that connector located, I have similar issues..

Thanks

 

Hi Kyle 700 !
Just a reminder, it would appear the other gent had that problem back in 2013 and all we can do is hope he is still reading these posts.
Maybe those of us still around might be able to offer some help if we knew more of those "similar issues". Can you be a little more specific?

 

My turn signals and ac/heater fan work intermittently, when they work, they both work, when they don't, they both don't. In the "don't" mode, I can see the front turn signal come on and illuminate the street but it doesn't flash.
Separate issue...it is a 92 LX sport with the 5.0 HO, when you hit the gas pedal hard for some gitty-up the engine stumbles bad, loses power, doesn't stall. That part I have read a lot of all the different engines in the T-birds doing the same thing.

So, the answer I am expecting to get is "check the ground".....ok, which, what, what...the post I commented on was a specific connector, but he didn't give a location of it.

 

Wish it was so, but unfortunately manufacturers don't always place ground connections in the same place. What you can try is to trace any and all connections that go from the battery negative terminal to engine and body sheet metal and to any other ground wiring. If a detailed ground distribution diagram were available we could be more specific. From the symptoms you describe there could be more than one problem and that is only a guess. You are looking for what we call a silver bullet . Sometimes they are available, but most times it takes some detective work to chase down ground wires where they connect to sheet metal or other multiple connections.
A side note ,reminder, just looking at a ground connection does no good. It needs to be removed , inspected, cleaned and tight. A coating of Dielectric grease is always a good insurance to prevent recurrence.
They also put some ground connections in hard to get at places under the dash. Lets hope you don;t need to get that involved.