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Wiring L.E.D. tail lights????

Uglygreenxj

Uglygreenxj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Circle City, AZ
Allright, I have made some boxes from 14 gauge diamond plate to replace my tail lights and I want to install some oval L.E.D. combination stop, turn, & tail lights in there and some small round clear reverse lights below them. While I have no problem physically doing wiring, I don't have enough of an electrical backround to know how to correctly do this (one light replacing many). I understand that I will need to get a different flasher. Which one will I need to switch to? Any help is greatly appreciated as I couldn't find any info. on the wiring aspect of this under a search!

Thanks in advance guys!

Dave :idea:
 
Couple things you can do. You can get a trailer wiring kit, that converts the seperate turn, tail, and brake lights into one. They're not expensive at all and very straight forward. Another thing you can do is find one of the older Wagoneer style XJ's at a yard and rob them of the same type of harness. Not sure exactly what's involved there as far as a "harness" is concerned but I know it works. You need to find one with the solid red style taillights.


Also, LED lights have next to no draw, or "resistance". So your turn signals will flash very quickly. Couple things you can do here as well. You can switch your turn signals with your hazards. Not sure why this works, but it does. Or you can get resistors to tie into the wire. The resistors are very simple, just inline with the wire. That's the way I would go, but both ways work.
 
Voltage = Currrent X Resistance....

get a lot of each type of LED. for each bulb you replace, wire multible LEDs in series so that the resistance is close to that of the bulb youre replacing. SHould work out fine. Im in the processs of replaging my map lights with LEDs. Im replacing the lenses with a machined piece that holds 3 LEDs on each switch.

-J
 
jjvande said:
Voltage = Currrent X Resistance....

get a lot of each type of LED. for each bulb you replace, wire multible LEDs in series so that the resistance is close to that of the bulb youre replacing. SHould work out fine. Im in the processs of replaging my map lights with LEDs. Im replacing the lenses with a machined piece that holds 3 LEDs on each switch.

-J
Click to expand...


Each type of LED? There is only one "type".

When you replace factory style Halogen bulbs, with any LED style bulb, the resistance is next to nothing.

Like these:

stt07lr.jpg


You would have to run about 4 pairs or more to get the same resistance and a regular hallogen taillight.

You'll need to run resistors, or do the Hazard light switch thing, or run a new style flasher that switches on less resistance.
 
jjvande said:
Voltage = Currrent X Resistance....

get a lot of each type of LED. for each bulb you replace, wire multible LEDs in series so that the resistance is close to that of the bulb youre replacing. SHould work out fine. Im in the processs of replaging my map lights with LEDs. Im replacing the lenses with a machined piece that holds 3 LEDs on each switch.

-J
Click to expand...



By the way, you can replace almost any numbered factory style bulb with LED's built to fit into the same exact sockets as regular bulbs.

194_4led_y.jpg


Might be easier than custom building a bulb that had LED's in it if thats what you're talking about.

http://autolumination.com/leds.html
 
You guys are funny!!!Its an overloaded(amps) flasher that causes that "fast" flasher rate,reducing the load could possibly slow them down.Higher resistance(ohms) means less current(amps) draw.

IBEW LU 640
 
I guess "Resistance" wasn't a good word to use. I guess what I mean to say is the LED's don't have near the "Draw" that hallogens do.

RCP, if "overloading" a flasher is what causes it to go fast, then how come it will speed up if you simply replace a hallogen tallight with an LED one?
 
Might be easier than custom building a bulb that had LED's in it if thats what you're talking about.
I was thinking the overhead beams on my '88.




Each type of LED? There is only one "type".

There are LEDs that fit on a circuit board (cell phone) and some that are for larger applications. ....the ones im talking about are the ones that come in those little flashlights..keychain...Those run about 6-10 V DC and they would work just fine in series.

When you replace factory style Halogen bulbs, with any LED style bulb, the resistance is next to nothing Low draw means high resistance...

I went to Radio Shack and they have many different LEDs and some rated @ 3.7VDC , some at much less.

think of how long those flashlights last on watch batteries...

regards
 
Real world, actually did it experiance here...

The LED replacement bulbs do NOT throw enough light to be worth a darn in the stock housing.

More currnt draw causes a stock thermal type flasher to flash faster.

Install an aftermarket "electronic" flasher to solve flash problems when converting to LED taillights.

After all the playing around...I went with normal 4" incadescent lamps, cheaper, durable enough, simple.

Rev

If you want to play...

LEDs Here
 
Real world, actually did it experiance here...

The LED replacement bulbs do NOT throw enough light to be worth a darn in the stock housing.

More currnt draw causes a stock thermal type flasher to flash faster.

Install an aftermarket "electronic" flasher to solve flash problems when converting to LED taillights.

After all the playing around...I went with normal 4" incadescent lamps, cheaper, durable enough, simple.

Rev
 
Phat has it right. Use the trailer wire converter boxes to convert combine the seperate turn / tail into one. Try the turn signals after & if they don't work swap the flasher motors & all should be good. I've done this on or talked people through doing this on about about 5 different rigs & swapping the flasher has work on every one including my own.

matt
 
Out of curiosity, Are the LED's red behind the red lense or are they white bulbs behind the red lense?
 
Thanks to everyone who chimed in! I will be off to get those trailer wiring kits now. I've been meaning to do this mod for quite a while but was too lazy to build the boxes to house the new lights. Ended up only taking me a couple hours and they look great!

Dave
 
I was just thinking...

Red LED's in the map lights let you keep your night vision :)
 
I'm doing the same mod today, just got some steel plate and the trailer lights with harness from walmart. I'm plating the side all the way to the tire wheels. Its the oval type light with regular bulb. Walmart doesnt carry the LED's.
 
Red would be cool in the map lights...

I was thingking that you could put about 3 bulbs in each lense space. each bulb could be pointed in a different direction. say one location has 3 red LEDs pointed in directions so that they illuminate the entire front cabin... the other location could have three white LEDs . this way you could choose between red and white depending on what switch you press and your mood :)

did that make sense..? just a thought
 
Sounds like an interesting idea. I couldn't resist topping it off with a disco ball hanging from the rear view mirror! Now that would set the mood!


Dave :D
 
I'm stalled in the middle of this mod. I picked up the taillight boxes from Rusty's, (2) 100watt GE 4 inch sealed beam lamps, and (2) 4 inch Peterson Mfg. stop/turn/tail lamps. I also shopped for some Hoppy trailer wiring at WalMart. The part that nobody had in stock was the T-shaped Cherokee plug-in wiring converter.

Right now, I just want to get the S/T/T lights working. I'll worry about LED and the backup lights later. I'll hook the backup lights up with a Hella fused relay.

Anybody know what the best 4 inch LED lights are?

So far the biggest pain was popping the lamps into the grommets and unscrewing the Torx bolts (imagine that!) for the taillights.
 
I also have 2 ideas:

1. Keep the stockers, but pull them inside. Use them for interior lighting. (I don't have a dome light.) They should make pretty red, yellow and white interior lights.:)

2. Pull them inside and mount them inside the rear window. Switch the left lamp assembley with the right and vice versa. That way they remain useful and stay protected (and dry).
 
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