You need to ask yourself, "can this happen?" The turn signal switch normally should NOT have anything to do with tail lamps, only stop/ turn. Why would it be the brake light switch? You say the lamps are only on when the car is "cranked."

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??

"cranked?"

Do you mean when you are cranking the engine on the starter?

Do you mean when the ignition switch is in "run?"

Do you mean only when the engine is running?



I think you have multiple problems. You mentioned a former problem where "something got hot." All these cars use inexpensive thermoplastic insulation, which, when involved with a short/ heating, can melt insulation off of adjoining wires back into the harness(s.)

Have you got the service manual? There are a couple you can download. You can get "useable" diagrams over at "My Mopar"

Take about a week and tear down the car. Take out the back seat, remove the sill plate and kick panel(s) glove box and cluster. I always used to drop the steering column into the seat.

Rig the battery so you can disconnect it easily, and get yourself a 12V lamp and a decent meter if you don't have one.

Check along the way to see if your "draw" goes away. One way to protect the car from damage is to "rig" a BIG lamp in series with the battery ground, so you can see the draw, and if you short something, it won't matter--it will just light the lamp.

Depending on what I'm doing, sometimes I use a 12V test lamp, sometimes I WANT more draw in the lamp. Sometimes I take a junk tail/ stop socket with both wires twisted together, clamp a wire to the socket, and use that. Both filaments together draw more. SOMETIMES I use an old headlamp

Check along the way to see if your draw went away

Remove ALL tail/ stop/ marker/ park lamps and examine the bulbs and sockets As to the bulbs you might even check them on a battery, one at a time, to see that they light properly. IT IS POSSIBLE for a stop/ turn bulb to become welded together internally SO THAT both filaments are connected together.

Look at your shop manual and identify "main" connections, and separate them to see if the problem goes away.

In your case, BECAUSE you seem to have had previous troubles, I would even go so far as to:

Pull loose all the sections of the bulkhead connector, to isolate the engine bay. Identify the pin in the bulkhead that is the "battery feed" that is the one going into the bulkhead from the starter relay/ battery. Rig a temp connection (clip lead) so you can feed power INTO the car interior without having ANY of the rest of the engine bay connected.

STOP THERE and see if the problem still occurs, both the lamp problem and the "draw" problem.

If not, start unhooking major connections--the kick panel connection to the rear harness was mentioned.

If none of this gets anywhere, I would pull out (at least part of) the dash harness and untape it in the major sections

feeding the ignition switch, the ammeter

the headlight switch, the turn signal switch

and of course down to the brake light switch.

You are looking for "melt" damage. Sometimes you can see this before you untape the harness.

Remove and inspect the fuse box, too.