Tail light conversion, 3 wire to 2 wire

[dh]

I was hooking up some taillights today and it occured to me that I hadn't seen this little trick for the cheapy tail lights.

They have three wires coming out, 2 for the stop and turn, and the third for the side marker.

I have a stupid trick to eliminate one, I use a wire tap inside the housing and tie the side marker wire into the rear marker wire, and presto, I only have two wires coming out. Nothing spectular, but IMO a cleaner install.

Just thought I'd share this with yall.

PS

I was a little deceptive in the subject, I actually run a seperate ground to every light, so my converson is actually from a 4 wire to a 3 wire.

[Miriam C.]

Just needs some pictures

[wlooper89]

My tail lamps have an extra wire for the stop/turn signals which are in the same housings but use a different power source. The bulbs have a second filament to come on brighter for stop or turn. Your arrangement may be different from mine as you could have separate stop/turn signal housings and not need a second filament to make the tail lamps brighter for stop/turn. Side marker lamps would use the same power source as the tail lamps and license plate lamp. As Miriam suggested a pic of your rear and side lamps would help us understand better.

Bill

[dh]

Sorry, no pictures for a while, my computer finally went to circuit heaven, so I'm stuck using my computer at work, so I can't download anything to resize the pictures to something usable.

But, this might help

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=93861

I'm talking about these super cheap tail lights, if you look, you can see that they have a side marker light built into the unit. A lot of other cheapies, Blazer and Peterson to name a few, are exactly the same. The side marker light has a lead coming out of the housing, as well as the the two leads from the dual fillament tail/stop/turn bulb, giving 3 leads coming from the housing. I simply terminate the lead from the side marker inside the housing using a wire tap to tie it into the tail light wire for the rear tail/stop/turn bulb, so I have two wires coming from the housing, not three.

[wlooper89]

dh,

I know what you mean about circuit board heaven. My venerable laptop died recently and Best Buys sold me a replacement that has several times the performance at about one fifth what the old one cost. I am still trying to figure out what to do with a little stack of hard drives that have accumulated from our defunct computers, going back almost twenty years. They all contain account and personal information and I am afraid to just put them in the trash although the drives are too small to be useful now.
Thank you for the link to your trailer lights from Harbor Freight. It is becoming clearer. I am in the midst of rewiring my own trailer lights and have found it confusing at times. My trailer wiring is a mixture of the original Little Guy four-wire plug and 7-pin hitch and trailer connectors/wires that I added to accommodate trailer battery charging and electric brakes. Those were for-fun projects, mostly to keep me out of mischief. My most recent changes began with a discovery that the 7-pin receptacle on the trailer tongue was overheating, melting almost. My question about that in a topic received a lot of helpful replies including one from Miriam. Several forum members led me to the problem and I am making changes now.

My question about your lighting is what are you doing with the 12V negative white wire for the trailer lights? I believe sometimes the white wire is connected to the trailer frame, with the light fixtures connected to the frame, and sometimes there is a white wire branching off each light fixture to the wiring harness. As far as I know either way is fine. Little Guy seems to have done some of both. Most of the light fixtures are mounted in something other than metal and there is a white wire attached either to the trailer frame or, where it was convenient, to the white wire in the wiring harness. The white wire in the harness is also connected to the trailer frame.
Bill

[dh]

dh,

My question about your lighting is what are you doing with the 12V negative white wire for the trailer lights? I believe sometimes the white wire is connected to the trailer frame, with the light fixtures connected to the frame, and sometimes there is a white wire branching off each light fixture to the wiring harness. As far as I know either way is fine. Little Guy seems to have done some of both. Most of the light fixtures are mounted in something other than metal and there is a white wire attached either to the trailer frame or, where it was convenient, to the white wire in the wiring harness. The white wire in the harness is also connected to the trailer frame.
Bill

I run a white wire to each light, and crimp on a STAINLESS STEEL ring terminal. Where the light bolts to the frame, fender, whatever, I put the ring terminal on the light's stud, as this is where the light would normally ground to the frame. I have had good luck putting it between the washer and the nut.

Sorry. no pictures, but this may help:


| |
|__|_ Stud
____| Nut
=====---------------- Ring terminal with wire
******** Washer
#############################
############################# Frame
#############################
%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Light Body
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%