I keep having a problem with the right side taillight...I noticed one of the wires was broken and decided to change the light socket....What I noticed is that the brake light will not work unless the socket is grounded to the tailight housing..Is this normal...What I'm trying to describe is if the sockets are removed from the tailight bezel the driving lights will work untill you hit the brakes then the tailight shut off untill the brakes are released...If the sockets are in the bezel the tailights and brake lights work fine...Is this normal... Seems like they are grounding through the tailight housing(See small sparks from the metal fingers on the socket when I push it into the bezel)...Should the tailights sockets ground throught the tailight bezel..I have a ground to the trunk frame from the rear harness already....So is this correct should the taillight sockets ground through the tailight housing...Thanks in advance

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76 LE Trans Am 455 4 speed.. # Matching..

68 Camaro R/S 327 4 speed

This is correct.

Yes, this is how they work, and was an endless source of confusion for me the day after I bought my 68 (about 2 months ago) and was trying to diagnose the problems in the brake lights. Took me an hour or so of playing around with a multimeter and turning on the headlights, pushing the brake pedal etc. before I realized that the little metal tabs on the socket might be important.