Tail lights and license plate lights aren't working

Pretty sure this might help, but I don't know diddly about wiring. Carey sent this to me a couple of years back. Plus it's in Portuguese I think.

Thanks Rich, but that's a low res image and I can't make out any of the text even when I zoom in.  

nick it could be a faulty earth  try fitting a earth lead to one of the rear light nuts & to a ground /earth  worth a go

Nick have you tried clicking on the image...or printing it? I think you will find you can read it if you can read Portuguese

Nick...THESE MIGHT HELP, forget the two above:

Don't forget to click on the image, resolution is better.

To amplify what Oliver said up above, all of those lights are on the same circuit (wire), along with the front parking lights so I would check these three things in the following order:

 

1.  Make sure the tail/parking light wire is connected to the headlight switch behind the dash - the wire may have simply fallen off - this is more common than not.  Just look for a loose wire hanging near the switch.

 

2.  With a voltmeter, check first at the tail light connection at the headlight switch, then at one of the bulbs at the rear of the car.  If you're getting +12V at those two spots, then go on to number 3:

 

3.  Check for a missing ground (earth) connection for the tail lights (especially if the front parking lights are lighted but not the tail lights).  Since you have a plastic car body, there should be a separate ground wire connecting the tail and license plate lights together and then going to a chassis ground point so they'll light.

 

This is all pretty simple - you shouldn't have any trouble figuring it out before tonight.

Nick...My headlights suddenly did not work and sure enough, a wire connection to the fuse box was lose and needed to be tightened as Gorden indicated in item 1. above.  Now all is good.

Also note that these are glass fuses and sometimes they may look good but are blown out at the ends where you can't see it.

It's a either high or low side issue.  Since these circuits are switched with different switches (headlamp & turn signal) it's doubtful that it's at the switch.  Fuse or ground, with ground sounding more likely.

CrawlCrawl underneath driver side front tire and make sure that the wire is connected too the master cylinder.  Happened to me and it took about 4 seconds to fix

First off, thanks to everyone who replied.  Gordon, I appreciate the step by step...

 

I believe it ended up being a blown fuse that just wasn't obvious (maybe the wire inside just came loose from the end).  I replaced all the fuses and voila, we have license plate lights and tail lights!!  

 

Just in time for an evening ride.  Gotta love that!

Nick, open the engine hatch and look around the rear for the wiring for the lights. Make sure the wires are all plugged together. Make sure any ground wires are ok