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Thanks to Bob & Ken for educating me on this one!
After having a tail lite blink out on me once again, I had to start digging behind the panels to get to the lamp housings. I've wiggled the connections many times and it was now time to deal with these once and for all! I cleaned up all the contacts on the bulb holders, spade connectors, and lamp housings with some scotch brite and coated them with dielectric grease. I found the right side rear fog lamp was burned out (so it is wired to operate both sides on a 1990 245). The left side bulb was fine and when I measured with my voltmeter I got 12v with the lites on. Every time I attempted to get that 12v to the bulb, I'd get NO LIGHT (I used jumper wires from the spade connection & ground to the bulb in my hand). I then removed the switch and tested it. I got a slight amount of resistance with the contacts closed. I was a bit puzzled, but I thought that perhaps the switch had such a poor connection that it wasn't allowing current flow. Excercising the switch many times didn't even do the trick. Next, I tried to jumper across the connector. LIGHTS ON! Ok, that was it. I took the switch apart to find it gooey, green, and corroded. I cleaned all that up and lubed everything with dielectric grease and put it back together. I now have one L side rear fog lamp! Hopefully that will do some good this winter, and hopefully I don't have any more problems with my rear bulb contacts!
I had thought about getting the R side fog lamp to work also, for the same reason you listed, Anthony. I can't stand being tailgated either, but I know the value of having only 1 rear fog lite. Having 2 rear fogs does make people think you're riding the brakes and makes it less distinctive when you actually do hit the brakes. So to prevent being rear-ended, I'm going to stick with just one rear fog for now.
Steve
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