Tail lights not working, '73 Bug

...................Speedy Jim is the guy you need. In the mean time, have your son clean to 'shiny metal' all of the ground wire connections front and back where they're screwed to sheet metal.

On the Tail Lights, if the front parking lights work, the rear Tail Lights AND License Plate light should work. If not, replace the rear bulbs. As Tim suggested, check the grounds. On '73, there is a push-on connector tab located behind the tar board on each side.

If the Hazard switch only works the Right side, but Turn Signals work correctly for both sides, the Hazard switch is bad. They are poorly built and often fall apart.

Speedy Jim

My right rear light would't work when my headlights were on. But they would work when pressed. I followed from the dash back, and finally found a disconnected wire that was next to the engine. My turn signals also didn't work. But by digging around for the tail light... they magically started workin, hehe. So just get him looking around, and just using common sense. ~peace~Justin

The problem was traced to two areas. The first, as suggested by Speedy Jim, was the hazard relay. It is in questionable operation mode, and will need to be replaced. Although this is currently in working order.

The second is that a previous owner, for whatever reason, cut the (+) wire to the right tail lamp (gray color on the wiring diagram) and spliced a line from the (+) line on the left tail lamp. The tail lamps worked when this wire was replaced with a new one -- which was soldered and wrapped correctly. The problem was discovered due to the fact that while only one fuse was snapping, both tail lamps failed to work.

A new wiring harness will now be high on the list of priorities for future VW work. Thanks to all who replied.