Another L.e.d. taillight thread!

Ok so I have a 2001 and just installed a set of Jcr rear taillight boxes.
We ordered the reverse light kit from Jcr and armed with my search results we ordered the Tow ready converter that the threads said to use and a ep27 flasher relay to get rid of the fast blink.I have it kind of rigged up to work for now while I figure this out and the ep27 flasher relay worked great to get rid of the fast blink.

The problem I am having is mine is wired just like in the walkthrough Hammered did. When I hit my brakes however the L.E.D. only briefly flickers. If I have someone hold the brake on when you attach the stop wire to the converter box it briefly flickers. Everything else works fine otherwise. I used a tester that lights up when touched to a powered wire. When I hit the brake, power is going into the trailer converter at the stop input wire. but only briefly flickering on the stop/turn wire out from the converter box to the taillights.

We used the tester to identify each wire coming from the XJ and from the pics in other threads I have seen we have them right.

Some other variables are when we were installing the quarter guard my buddy tried to remove the brace on the drivers side behind where the spare would be and when I was wiring it I realized he had unhooked a couple of grounds. I reattached them (2) I wonder if I missed one except that if I wire in the original bulbs they all work correctly.

Another is that I have the stock tow wiring I wonder if that could be affecting it somehow. Or maybe I should try to piggyback it from the stock tow wiring to the Leds and throw out the tow ready converter?

For temporary I have found 3 ways to cross wire it that kind of work but each way sacrifices one function on at least one side. I feel like I should be able to just hook up the one stop wire and be done but Idk whats wrong..

I am also color blind lol, next post will be pics of the wiring.
If you know what you are looking at please comment and confirm it is right or guide me to correct it please.

Here you can see the driver side wires that come from the XJ The wire on top is supposed to be the stop and my tester agrees on that.

The next ones down from that are the 3 black grounds (from XJ) twisted together.

and then a brown wire with a green stripe (from XJ) goes to the black wire of the reverse Led.

then green with a red stripe (from XJ) to yellow with red stripe (left turn in)

then at bottom Brown (from Xj) to brown with yellow stripe (taillight in)


Here you can see more of the driver side wiring we have brown from the taillight output of the converter box to the black wires from the side markers and the 3 way taillights black wire marked taillight. ith also continues the brown wire to the other side.

Below that is all the white grounds, one from each light,one from the converter box ground input, and one to the taillight box bolt as ground.

Forgot to include it in the pic but the yellow wire that comes from left turn/stop out on box goes to the stop/turn red wired on 3 way led.



On to the right side here are the wires from the XJ

On top you see the white with red stripe again that the threads and my tester say is the stop.

loose next to it is the right side tail light wire left unhooked.

Below that is 3 black grounds (from XJ) twisted together.

below that is brown with green reverse (from xj) tied to the black wire on the rev. led.

and at the bottom Green with red stripe (from XJ) going to solid green that goes to right turn in on converter box.



The lower wires on the passenger side have 3 white wires from leds tied to white ground from output on box.

and below that Brown and yellow or white (from taillight out on box) to black wires from side marker and black 3way stop led.

And at the bottom you have green with yellow (from stop turn right on box) to red stop/turn wire on 3 way led.



Here is a pic of the converter box I am confused as to why I can't just hook one of the white with red stripe wires from the Xj to the red wire that goes to Stop input on the box and call it a day.



Kind of hoped I would find wher I went wrong just by typing this up but I still don't see what is wrong.

I may just pull it all out and try to wire it from the factory tow wires today

ok. so here's what you needs to do.

get multi mter, set to volts. Check for correct voltage at the inputs to box.

Check for outputs from box.
If you get outputs from box it is something with how you've wired LEDs.
if no output from box, box is bad.

I assume you've tried grounding box and lights to chassis?
you should just call me tonight.

Looks like I will spend some time today rechecking everything and troubleshooting with Manche's help this eve. if necessary.

I will update this thread for others that run into issues.

i called you, you no answer.

I r sad panda.

might be a stupid question... but could the issue be the flasher relay?

i just installed the tow ready boxes and LEDs into my '97 without one. i have no hyper blink.

87manche said:

i called you, you no answer.

I r sad panda.

Click to expand...

Sorry man I had a bit of a plumbing issue at my house and got zoned in on that project with my phone left out in the XJ.
I did get to mess with the lights again and everything seems wired fine. When I test each function the inputs wires to the box from the Xj all light up the indicator probe on the appropriate wire.

On the output side of the box the stop only briefly lights and then cuts off on the 2 stop/turn wires to each side even though the input side has continuous current.
This is the same as it has been so I unhooked everything since it is looking like a bad box.

I pulled the plug at the bumper from the stock trailer wiring and tried to test those wires to see If I could throw out the converter box and tap in there. All I found was a constant power and no others wires did anything. I plugged it back in to the bumper plug and used my trailer wiring plug that converts to 4 prong and has test Leds. My tow wiring on my bumper for my off road trailer does not work now.

I am going to order another converter box tonight and tomorrow after work I may rewire all the original bulbs and see if I can't get them to work and the trailer wiring at the bumper back working.

Then I can start back from square one or maybe try and wire from the stock trailer wiring.
If I don't figure it out soon I will just use the stock wiring and make the top light stop/turn with the lower and side light used as a taillight. Then I would have to mount the reverse lights in the hatch or bumper or something.

VAhasnoWAVES said:

might be a stupid question... but could the issue be the flasher relay?

i just installed the tow ready boxes and LEDs into my '97 without one. i have no hyper blink.

Click to expand...

Interesting mine did the hyper blink right away and the relay got rid of that. Other than slowing the blink it doesn't appear to have any effect when I switch them.

it sounds like a bad converter box.

that's pretty much exactly what the one I just replaced did.

87manche said:

it sounds like a bad converter box.

that's pretty much exactly what the one I just replaced did.

Click to expand...

Well life strikes again, I am taking an unplanned trip out of town to help my father who is having heart problems. My XJ will have to sit for up to a couple weeks.

Don't worry about my old man, he will be fine as long as he doesn't do any labor. Looks like I will be chopping lots of wood to help get him ready for winter.

Hopefully when I return I will be posting about how the new box works just fine.

When you get back, get rid of those wire nuts and use crimp caps or butt connectors.

I bought the same tail lights.I used 50w 6ohm load resister from amazon for $5 each. Wired it straight up.used the stock flasher unit. Your just wire one wire into the turn signal and one wire to the ground.stopped the hyper flash. The load resister gets hot so I would wrap the wires in $15 of reflective adhesive back header heat tape. Buy the way the wire nuts could cause a short when they get wet.I used solderless connectors and shrink tube

Lowrange2 said:

When you get back, get rid of those wire nuts and use crimp caps or butt connectors.

Click to expand...

They are temporary I had it together the first time with butt connectors and shrink tubing that was wasted when it didn't work. I have plenty in my supplies but didn't want to waste more until I had it working correctly.

Believe it or not in irrigation installation and repair in buried valve boxes we use wire nuts that come with a flange at the bottom to hold in the dielectric grease they come filled with. They would be a waste for a temporary solution and I wouldn't trust wire nuts with vibration or a wire getting tugged a bit.

Freddysxjcherokee said:

I bought the same tail lights.I used 50w 6ohm load resister from amazon for $5 each. Wired it straight up.used the stock flasher unit. Your just wire one wire into the turn signal and one wire to the ground.stopped the hyper flash. The load resister gets hot so I would wrap the wires in $15 of reflective adhesive back header heat tape.

Click to expand...

I know I can do this:
Turn wire from XJ to stop/turn on 3 way led
stop wire from XJ to taillight on 3 way led
ground from XJ to ground on 3 way led

This works and I could do the lower and side light as taillight.
leaving me to mount the rev led in the bumper or hatch and extending the reverse wires to them.

Are you saying I can run a function through the 3 way led's ground and not have a ground wire to the 3 way led?
For example:
Turn wire from XJ to stop/turn on 3 way led
stop wire from XJ to taillight on 3 way led
taillight from XJ to ground on 3 way led

That doesn't sound right, seems like if that was the case everyone would just do that.

I am (maybe incorrectly) under the impression the resistors you used or the flasher I used has no effect on the wiring but instead is 2 differing ways to get the same result. unless proper resistance is required back to by the lights to trigger relays that make things work. Which I don't think is the case or they wouldn't recommend to do it this way.

no, ground is ground, you can't run that to anything other than the chassis. unless you have a turn/stop/parking lamp LED with all of the functions wired separately you need a 3-2 converter.

Wire nuts. Your a hack

XJ jay said:

Wire nuts. Your a hack

Click to expand...

Did you not read the thread before insulting people? Or was it a comprehension fail?

Or do you not understand the word temporary or that it was originally done with and will be finished with butt connectors and shrink tubing after the wiring issues are solved.

Do you have any actual knowledge of the subject or did you just come here to shit on my thread and make yourself look like a jackass?

XJ jay said:

Wire nuts. Your a hack

Click to expand...

And you're an idiot.

OutkastBoss said:

Did you not read the thread before insulting people? Or was it a comprehension fail?

Or do you not understand the word temporary or that it was originally done with and will be finished with butt connectors and shrink tubing after the wiring issues are solved.

Do you have any actual knowledge of the subject or did you just come here to shit on my thread and make yourself look like a jackass?

Click to expand...

Its my experience that "temporary" usually becomes permanent. Butt connecters are a step above wire nuts and still in the realm of butcher.

I have extensive knowledge on 12volt wiring as well as proper install techniques which does include trailer wiring and LED lighting.

Wiring issues? Perhaps more wire nuts

My beef with this thread is some noob sees the wire nut and its perceived as correct so he uses on what ever he installs in his build thread etc. solider and heat shrink is the proper way folks.

IllianaXJ said:

And you're an idiot.

Click to expand...

With all the fail in this thread you pick up on grammar, at any rate, i stand corrected.

Double post.