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making led tailights need help

J

Jeepkid444

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Evergreen, Colorado
ok so my tail lights are broken so i wanted to make some led ones... what i got is 3 lead leds for the stop brake and turn and i got another "driving Light" led for the reverse lights but im not to sure how to hook them up because the stock xj used a 3 light system verses me using a 2 light system....i tried wiring them a couple ways but wont work.... this is how i tried first
TLSTOCK.gif

What happens is when u turn on the turn signals it acts as if the emergency flashers are on... so then i tried this (just removing on major on one side)
TLSTOCKchanged.gif

Then everything works fine like that but when the brake lights are on i get no blinker??? any help again is greatly appreciated
thanx
Justin
Oh someone had mention a foreign to American tail light module or something?
 
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I consider myself pretty good at wiring and following schematics, but i am having a hard time figuring out what is going on here.

Is "minor" driving lights hot and "major" brake hot?

Interesting to get this working for you, pic of the LEDs?
 
i will take some pics of the leds after i make the housings and all but they are just trailer light leds and then some "Driving" leds for reverse lights.......and i believe you are right with the hots! i took some pics of the stock xj bulb holders with the wires coming out it may help??
IMG_0431.jpg

IMG_0430.jpg
 
1. When you say your taillights are broken, do you mean the housing or is there an insidious electrical problem?

2. Do you own a voltmeter

3. Exactly how many LED lights are you trying to run? one "double circuit" red and one white? or one "triple circuit" red and one white

From your drawing it looks like a "double circuit" or 2 independent LED circuits in one housing (like a double filament light bulb).
 
well the lenses were cracked on my mj so i wanted to just get rid of them and make my own tail lights... and the tail lights are led trailer lights and then a driving light led for the reverse i guess that would mean a double curcuit
 
It looks like the first picture you have is correct.

I would troubleshoot by:

1) Disconnecting everything
2) Using my voltmeter test the harness to make sure it is working properly and which wires do what
3) Attach Brake/Turn to one trailer light lead (don't worry about backup)
4) Attach Running lights to other trailer light lead.
5) Attach both vehicle grounds to Trailer light ground.

Assess

If you are building a custom enclosure, why not add amber turns, so that you can turn and brake at the same time?
 
Just did mine easyiest way is hook up to towing harness if u have one ..... It will keep it from back feeding
 
well i tried just doing the trailer wire harness and plus into the drivers tail light plug and no luck on that now... i got a converter and wired it in and nothing...?? maybe i need more grounds? the convert wires are
white=ground
red=brake
green=right turn
yellow=left turn
brown= park/tail
so i wired it where i cut off the bulbs with all the grounds into one on the frame..
i took both the majors (brake i believe) and wired them to the red wire
then the right turn wire to the green... left to the yellow...and took both minors(running lights) and hooked them to brown
But i get nothing
also the reverse lights are not hooked up but the grounds are... i dont know if that helps any but im kinda lost what to do someone help
 
You need to wire up the trailer unit if you dont have one and plug your lights into the output of the trailer module
should work
All your doing is hooking them up as if u had a trailer you will not use the original wires that went to the factory lights just cut them and wire nut them so they dont ground out anything

This is if you use one light for tail, turn and stop
If you use 2 lights one for turn and one for running/stop you shouldnt need the trailer harness
 
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Using the trailer unit method it will work just dont get frustrated with it
Good luck
 
thank you :) i think i just have a problem with the ground and im going to try hooking up the reverse lights too.. i gotta finsih slapping this donor vechile back together so it rolls then back to the mj
 
ok so i got them working :) ended up making my own "module" out of 4 relays wired together ;) the only problem is when the blinkers are on...i get a smaller blink on the opposing side???? everything works fine except for that
 
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