Running brake lights , parking lights, signals, and signal indicator lights on the guage cluster. ok here is what I have.. ez wiring harness 12 circuit all new. ron francis SS-1 turn signal switch. lever type brake switch The headlight switch is form a 49 ford. The park/signal bulbs are all 2 wire dual filament. Everything is wired up as per instruction. The problem is that when I turn on the parking lights,.. the rears work fine, the fronts are very dimly lit and the signal indicator lights are lighting up. one very dim(left one) and the right is fully lit. I've checked grounds etc and all seem fine. I think the signals lights are getting their ground thru the instrument cluster mounting So the signal lights and the indicator lights are sharing the same ground. I do not know if that makes a difference. Everything seems to work just fine until the park/headlights are turned on. I have done many searches and reading the past couple days and found a lot of info, but nothing that really makes sense to me. maybe I am retarded.haha I just cant figure this out. I have read that some setups require a 3 prong flasher. My wire harness uses a 2 prong flasher. I dont know. It all seems right to me,.but something is missing or crossed and I have no clue where else to look. _______ At first,. I had the turn signals wired up with a basic 3 way toggle with 3 poles. everything worked just fine like that, except of course the brakes. Any ideas on whats missing or wrong here? thanks!!!
The parking lights should go off when the headlights are on...the "dim light" you're getting is most likely a bad ground. Use some jumper wire or a set of jumper cable to your ground points, see if it clears things up. Also, could be you just ghrounded the main electrical...i/e chassis/frame..to make the car start/run, but didn't run aground strap to the body?
I have a ground strap from the motor to the body. I have tried running a ground wire directly off the battery to the cluster. the lights do light up fine when power is put to them individually, but just not when the park lights come on and or the headlights. with the key on and headlights/park lights off,... everythingworks fine. somehow it is interfering between the front park lights and the indicator lights. I dont know if it is because they are sharing the ground at the guage cluster mounting or if its something with the relay being used. The fuse box is also grounded to the body in a different location under the dash. I do not know where else to check for the grounds. I hope I dont go bald before I get it right. hah
They share the ground at the bulb in the turn signal/park light socket at the front of the car. The socket is not grounded so the circuits are using the resistance from each other to "ground", hence the dim lights and the back-fed signal indicators. Most likely the one on the right as it is fully lit as you put it.
It is the right turn indicator light in the guage cluster that is the fully lit one while the left indicator is very dimly lit. The front signal lights are both dimly lit, one a little brighter than the other. The indicator lights should not even be coming on with the park light/headlight switch. with the park light/headlights off and turn signals on, they work just fine. I am using this type of socket in the headlights for the turn signal/park light.
To work properly that yellow plastic socket needs to have a metal "tang" that makes good contact with the metal housing that it snaps into. That is the ground connection. If that metal tang does not make contact with the metal light bucket or for some reason that plastic socket does not have one then that is your problem as everyone has been saying. Personally I'd get a light socket made of steel. Every one of the tangs can act as a ground. The metal light bucket may be grounded good but if the plastic light socket doesn't make a good ground contact with the bucket then you don't have a ground circuit and it will search for another path, quite possibly through your turn signal wires.
I agree with Squirrel, that socket doesn't look to be a dual filament socket, unless of course the picture does not show the metal tang that would ground the bulb. If it does have the tang , then you do have grounding issues. What you need to do is to take a picture of the socket from the "bulb" plug in side (without bulb) so that us hambers can have a better idea of what to suggest next. You have to remember that the signal indicators will be the ground for the front lights and that if the filaments are a little different, whether the front bulbs or the signal indicator bulbs, the bulbs will light dim or bright. Take some pics as suggested and post and we will go from there.
do you have the headlight switch wired properly? i just wired a `49 Ford with a stock switch and the park light wiring was a bit weird are you sure your headlight switch is in good shape? i have many many of that SS1 turn signal switch (the `49 ford i just did has one) and it's easy to get it wired wrong..are you sure it's correct? the diagram and instructions that come with it is upside down
I didnt get much done today. (been out at the RC track all day) I did try to find some metal sockets this morning and had no luck locally. I may have to order some that will be small enough to fit the holes. I did take out the bulbs on both sides. When I did that,..everything worked fine. I am about to head over to my shop in a minute. I will take photos of the socket that i was trying to use and the bulbs. I still have the packaging for them both as well.
Dual filament bulbs and matching sockets are kind of big, and if you have to fit the lights in a smaller hole then maybe you need to make the hole bigger.
36-3window,.. I was going to get a pic of how I have the headlight switch wired and forgot. grr. as for the sockets and bulbs, I am a dummy. These are single filament bulbs/sockets. Heres a pic of them. and also a pic of the lights they are going in. I am not sure if a large type socket and bulb will all fit in there. If so, then no problem widening the holes. I am going to search and see what kind of sockets i can find on the net to order. I really do appreciate the help on this!!!
Maybe some of those white LED lights would be the way to go. http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm for starters. Good luck!
You may want to try one of the led bulbs that will fit in the socket you have and then wire the parking light function through a diode and resistor to reduce the current to the led bulb, Wire the signal function around the diode and resistor with another diode to give maximum current to the led.. If you need a diagram let me know, but please include the led bulb specification with the request.
Yup those sockets are definitely single filament bulbs. Brown is power/Black is ground. If you can't find any metal sockets, look for one with three wires. It may have Brown/Green/Black. That would be Brown park lamp/ Green turn signal and Black ground.
Here is a diagram of an LED automotive lamp that will work with your present socket. View attachment leddiagram.pdf
I think his existing socket only has 2 wires and does not have a ground connection so he's still one wire short.
the diagram shows that with only a two wire socket you can make an led type lamp work for both parking and turn signals. brown wire = two cathodes of diodes black wire = ground resistor goes to parking light wire from headlight switch other diode anode goes to turn signal wire from turn signal switch.
Ok, I think it is working now. I went and bought some metal sockets with ground tab and 1157 bulbs. I kinda threw those together real quickly and ground to the headlight ground,..which is ground to the headlight mount. They worked!!!! everything worked like supposed to. Even the brakes/ brake switch. I am going to go look at it again in the morning and make sure I am not just hallucinating or something. hah The only problem now is that those sockets with that sized bulb are too tall. I've been to all sorts of auto parts stores throughout today and even a harley shop to see if I can find some sockets that use a smaller bulb. There as a # 7443 bulb that is small like the ones I was trying to use before, but are dual filament. I just cant seem to find any sockets for them. I've been searching the net with no luck yet. any other suggestions besides going LED,.which I might just have to do I guess. thanks for the help!! jeff
OK, it is now official. They work! I found some smaller dual filament bulbs at a Honda shop that fit the same socket as the standard bulbs. I took the big sockets with the ground tabs back and then got some simple 2 wire metal sockets. I only had to enlarge the holes in the buckets just a little. I also soldered a ground wire onto the outside of the socket and ground it to where the headlights are ground. It all come out real nice and works great. Thank you all for the help and advice!!.
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