New Tail Lights
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Lights, Neon, LEDs, HIDs
Forum Discription: Under Car Lighting, Strobe Lights, Fog Lights, Headlights, HIDs, DRL, Tail Lights, Brake Lights, Dashboard Lights, WigWag, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=82398
Printed Date: April 27, 2024 at 1:35 AM
Topic: New Tail Lights
Posted By: sovereignscorn
Subject: New Tail Lights
Date Posted: September 02, 2006 at 4:26 PM
I recently got new tail lights for my truck, but I've come across a problem. The lights are jeep-style lights that are mounted to my truck using steel l-brackets and self tapping screws, and is grounded through the mounting equipment. My problem is that I only have one wire for brake and turn signals. I have not connected anything yet, but with my current knowlege of DC, if both wires are running to the positive of the bulb, when the brake is on it will over-ride the flash of the turn signal. I might be wrong, but I was thinking that it would be possible, using relays, to set the system up so that when the system is receiving power from one of two sources, the power is allowed to flow through, but if it receives power from both at once, it will route the power to nothing, giving me a flash effect even when the brake is applied. Unfortunatley, I'm not very good with relays yet, and have no idea how to wire a relay, or multiple if needed to get the effect that I want. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Replies:
Posted By: Hoptup32
Date Posted: September 03, 2006 at 4:41 PM
Normally you only have one wire for the right or left brake/turn light. The OEM wiring thru the steering column of the vehicle handles the brake - turn signal priority. If you have the turn signal lever pressed, the cam in the steering column disengages the brake light for whichever side the turn signal is activated for and the rear light will flash to indicate a turn, the opposite brake light will remain steady indicating that you have the brakes applied. With a dual filament bulb, the brake/turn signal in wired to the high output filament, while the parking light is wired to the low filament. If your new lights have two wires, determine which wire goes to the high output filament and wire the brake/turn signal to it and wire the parking light wire to the remaining wire. As you stated, the light housing is grounded thru the mounting strap.
Posted By: sovereignscorn
Date Posted: September 03, 2006 at 5:02 PM
Thanks, I will try wiring the brake and parking together on the brighter filament.
Posted By: sovereignscorn
Date Posted: September 03, 2006 at 5:29 PM
Just wired the lights that way, brake and turn signal going to the brighter filament, and when the brake and turn are both on, the turn signal turns off untill the brake is let off, and the light stays solid.
Posted By: Hoptup32
Date Posted: September 04, 2006 at 6:30 PM
What year/type of truck are you adding the lights to? Since the steering column doesn't seem to be controlling the brake/turn signal priority, I have attached a relay diagram to resolve the conflicting blub usage. The diagram shows the relay configuration for one side, you will have to duplicate this setup for the other side also, so you will need four five terminal bosch style relalys and four diodes. 
Posted By: sovereignscorn
Date Posted: September 05, 2006 at 2:30 PM
It is a 1988 Toyota truck. I made my own diagrams and finally found something that worked last night. The first i tried was: [URL=https://imageshack.us][IMG]https://img504.imageshack.us/img504/352/brakeze0.png[/IMG][/URL] It worked, but my truck thought that the turn signal was burned out and flashed weird. After a little bit of thinking, I came up with this system: [URL=https://imageshack.us][IMG]https://img315.imageshack.us/img315/9223/brake2ci7.png[/IMG][/URL] It works almost perfectly. The only problem is that when the brake is on, and the turn signal is added to it, both lights go off and the opposite turn signal comes on, giving the illusion that one is flashing and the other is staying solid. There is a very slight flash in the opposite light switching from brake to turn signal power, but it is hardly noticable, especially with the parking lights on.
Posted By: sovereignscorn
Date Posted: September 05, 2006 at 2:32 PM
It worked, but my truck thought that the turn signal was burned out and flashed weird. After a little bit of thinking, I came up with this system: 
It works almost perfectly. The only problem is that when the brake is on, and the turn signal is added to it, both lights go off and the opposite turn signal comes on, giving the illusion that one is flashing and the other is staying solid. There is a very slight flash in the opposite light switching from brake to turn signal power, but it is hardly noticable, especially with the parking lights on. (Not being able to edit my own posts is getting on my nerves)
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