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JCR Tail Light Boxes

XJensen

XJensen

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Sacramento
I won a pair of JCR's Tail Light Boxes at SierraFest this summer and wanted to show a little love for them with a write up.

I know these are a bolt on item and don't really require a write up by i just wanted to share my experience.

let me start off by saying I love the LEDs and boxes. i have broke a tail light before and they are not always easy to find on the cheap for a '97 and up. Luck would have it these saved me from another broken light my first trip out with them.

I painted them black and mocked them up to check fit and to see how I liked the color.

tail_lights%20002.jpg


The fit was pretty good, but me being anal, I wanted a seamless fit with the body lines. I was also not a fan of them being black.

notice the top and bottom stuck out by a fraction of an inch, while the middle didn't quite come out far enough. Actually not a big deal and you may not even notice, again it was a very small amount.

tail_lights%20003.jpg


tail_lights%20006.jpg


The inside bottom corners were also making contacting the body and not allowing the box to sit flush. I cut out the corner so there was no contact and it made a great place to route my cb cable.

tail_lights%20013.jpg
 
The outside edge was finessed to fit flush the quarter panel and the mounting holes were wallowed out to allow for a more precise fit.

tail_lights%20016.jpg


Not a big difference but it's the little things.

tail_lights%20017.jpg


The hatch was also making contact with the boxes. There was overlap left on the box possibly for customizing? I took about a 1/4" from both boxes to get the hatch to close without contact. this ended up flush with the inner side of the box.

tail_lights%20022.jpg


As I mentioned the black was not going to cut it, especially after seeing the JCR guards painted to match their green jeep.

tail_lights%20024.jpg
 
The hole for the lights did not line up either. But then again the nuts would not fit on the lights with their supplied holes.


tail_lights%20025.jpg


I am pleased with how everything turned out and thanks again JCR.

tail_lights%20027.jpg


Saving my tail light on their first trip out.

Hell_Hole_Res%20315.jpg
 
nice job man and that is a great score to win those boxes. did you have any issues finding the LED lights and wiring them up?
 
Good deal. I got the full panel guards with built in taillights and hope to install them tomorrow. I've had to replace broken taillights 3 times and got tired of it. Got a pair of lights from a junkyard for $50 the first time and when I broke one of the new ones, had to buy an aftermarket replacement for like $40. Hopefully this will solve all my problems.

So did you just drill new holes in the light flanges to match up with the JCR drilled holes in the metal?
 
sunburned said:
So did you just drill new holes in the light flanges to match up with the JCR drilled holes in the metal?
Click to expand...

Yeah I rotated the marker lens and the brake light needs to be drilled anyway, the holes are in a different pattern altogether.

rossmiller00 said:
nice job man and that is a great score to win those boxes. did you have any issues finding the LED lights and wiring them up?
Click to expand...

I looked all over the web and had originally wanted some Peterson LEDs but the best thing I found was a website called superbrightled.com.

I ended up ordering my lights from JCR, I figured I should give them the business since I did get the boxes for free. Turns out the use the same place for their lights, so that worked out great.

The wiring was simple, just test everything before soldering it all up.

Josh
 
Oh thats great to hear that JCR sources the lights from a good place. Im way to lazy to piece chit like that together. Im definitely buying the full quarter panel tails for mine, my tails are basically held together with cellophane tape.
 
I got the full quarter panel with the tail light boxes. They are awesome. I color coded them to match the factory color. I also had a problem with the holes lining up on the lights so I just re-drilled the holes
 
The wiring was simple, just test everything before soldering it all up.

Josh[/QUOTE]

Did you ned to use a special trailer harness or just splice the wires from your stock bulbs to the leds pigtails? I am more of a mech. guy than elec. I am going to be installing my boxes with the same lights and have seen tons of different write ups on this. I figured it would be simple enough to connect the wires from the stock bulbs to the led harness. Also what did you do for back up lights? Thank you for the help.

John
 
Mine are sitting on the kitchen table all painted up and ready to go on.............I like the color match look but The black looks good with gunmetal blue. Mine is the same color, now I know what it will look like.
 
RAM-ROD said:
Did you ned to use a special trailer harness or just splice the wires from your stock bulbs to the leds pigtails? I am more of a mech. guy than elec. I am going to be installing my boxes with the same lights and have seen tons of different write ups on this. I figured it would be simple enough to connect the wires from the stock bulbs to the led harness. Also what did you do for back up lights? Thank you for the help.

John
Click to expand...


AFAIK, you only need those if you want to use the Brake light as the turnsignal as well. I may end up having to do that because of my tire carrier spindle.
 
FlexdXJ said:
AFAIK, you only need those if you want to use the Brake light as the turnsignal as well. I may end up having to do that because of my tire carrier spindle.
Click to expand...

Thanks Aaron. So i should be good to go then with the lights JCR supplied unless i decide to turn the bottom hole into back up lights. think i am going to wire those up into a diff. location like the hatch or recessed into rear bumper. I got the full armor with boxes so looking forward to "using" them at winterfest

John
 
XJensen said:
Yeah I didn't use a trailer harness, just clipped of the old connectors and wired it up. I plan on installing the backup lights in the bumper.

Josh
Click to expand...


thanks man. makes me feel better about this i do not know why but i hate elc. work...
 
No problem. Just test the brakes with the lights on and off to make sure they work. I also just spliced the side marker light into the brake lights so it only comes on when the lights are on.

One thing I did not mention is that the blinkers will blink fast due to the lower resistance. I noticed that they blink normal with the emergency flashers. I think I will grab a few different resistors and try them out this weekend.

Josh
 
Last edited:
XJensen said:
No problem. Just test the brakes with the lights on and off to make sure they work. I also just spliced the side marker light into the brake lights so it only comes on when the lights are on.

One thing I did not mention is that the blinkers will blink fast due to the lower resistance. I noticed that they blink normal with the emergency flashers. I think I will grab a few different resistors and try them out this weekend.

Josh
Click to expand...

You can get an electronic flasher to alleviate that, the PN is EP27, I think.
 
It's funny to me how you say you're anal about how things look, and you spent so much time making the hardly noticeable gaps fit better, yet the rear of your XJ is beat to hell and all scratched, then you bashed the box their first trip out! lol
 
XJensen said:
Nice! I found them on superbrightleds.com

Thanks

Josh
Click to expand...

the local auto parts stores carry them, as well. either EF27 or EP27 depending on brand. just look for "led" or "electronic" on the packaging or flasher and they should work correctly.
 
XJensen said:
Nice! I found them on superbrightleds.com

Thanks

Josh
Click to expand...


No problem man, I noticed yesterday that my tire carrier spindle is in the way on the passenger side. :doh: SO it looks like I'm using the taillight for stop/tail/turn. I guess I will just make a block off plate for the hole where the turnsignals are.
 
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