Lights and wiring Help

I've owned a 2nd gen and 3rd gen, but I just bought a 1996 regular cab Tacoma. 4 cylinder 4 wheel drive. Replaced the brake lights. And the license plate lights. The license plate lights still won't work. Checked fuses. All seems right. Also the radio works but it's not backlit at night. It that normal? And the cigarette lighter port doesn't work. I'm not an electrician. Someone help me out.

 

@GHOST SHIP

 

Was already typing when I got your tag, Rick.

Since you're having multiple issues and it's an older truck and you said you already checked the fuses, I'd say go low tech and trace the wiring back one at a time. Backlit radio- I'm almost certain this is an internal problem with the radio and may or may not be worth your time to get after if it's a stock radio (that is, if it even came backlit to begin with). License plate lights- most likely a rusted or bad connection since the wires are under the truck and somewhat exposed. Cig lighter could be the same thing. If anything, I'd say replace the lighter ($5 at any auto parts store for a generic) sometimes the prongs lose their "spring" and you have to jiggle it a bit. But they're not too hard to replace rather than fix.
Might sound time consuming, but you'd have to take these one at a time since they are most likely unrelated to each other, but related to being an older truck.

 

You'd be surprised with older cars the old "clean it and see if that works" approach usually works when it comes to electrical. Small bronze wire brush is your friend and maybe some electrical connection cleaner/ dielectric grease.

 

My old Jeep YJ taught me that over and over

 

I still get it. Sometimes you get lucky, other times you gotta buy parts. Who remembers playing the NES cartridges like a harmonica? Don't know why it worked and couldn't explain it now, but it worked every time.