Break/Turn light pigtail plug fix

[Mary K]

Howdy folks!

I have attached the skin to the inside of my hatch. I did this with SS screws and finishing washers. I want to be able to remove the skin if I hava to. I had the leftover scrap from the exterior skin and ended up using 2 pieces for the hatch. I will have a piece of molding to cover the seam.


Skin not attached in this photo.

I had a problem with the break/turn lights I installed. The 3 wire pigtail plug stuck up to far and the skin would not lay flat.

So I got to thinking and sacrificed a pigtail to see if my idea will work. I boiled it in water to soften it up and carefully cut the wires and terminals out of the plastic. Then I put some heat shrink on the wire around the terminal and pluged them in to the sockets. Then filled the socket with silicone.


Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the pigtail before, But this is what the pigtail looked like)


It works good for installing the skin, but I don't know yet if the lights will work....wish me luck.

Mk

[Miriam C.]

Now I know you are fairly careful but I will ask just in case. You did soldier the wires first, right? Good girl. I sure hope it works for you so I can borrow it if I ever get some fancy lights.

[peggyearlchris]

Hey MK. I don't know much about wiring but I wish you luck. Have a good one. Peg

[Mary K]

:o Now I know you are fairly careful but I will ask just in case. You did solder the wires first, right? Good girl. I sure hope it works for you so I can borrow it if I ever get some fancy lights.

Huh??? Solder?? What.... JK, The pins and the wiring came out if the plastic still crimped good, so I just covered the exposed wire with heat shrink, plugged em in and gooped the silicone on it!

Ya think I need to go back and solder???

:thumbsup: Hey MK. I don't know much about wiring but I wish you luck. Have a good one. Peg

Thanks Peg!! If you are building a TD, you will learn about wiring...trust me!!!! And I will be here to answer your questions!

Mk

[Podunkfla]

Mary K... Looks like a darn fine job to me. That plastic didn't serve any purpose than making it easy to plug-n-play. The crimped on connectors are used for virtually every connection on modern cars and work just fine. About the only problems are the ones exposed to the weather... and yours are not. Plus, it would be an easy fix from the outside... just unmount the light and fix if ya ever need to. I'm all for soldering when necessary... like permanent wiring hidden in the walls, ceiling, etc.
Lights and stuff you can get to easily... No biggie.

[madjack]

...slick fix MK...as to the wiring, I wouldn't worry too much about soldering it together...several times in my trucking career I have had to make a similar repair when a light went out and the pigtail was messed up...in those cases, I just plugged it up and went about my business...even went so far once to cut the pigtail off and "make" the insert connector by wadding up some wire and putting a drop of solder onit and shoving it into the back of the light...a piece of duct tape to hold it all secure and down the road I went....
madjack

[Miriam C.]

:o Now I know you are fairly careful but I will ask just in case. You did solder the wires first, right? Good girl. I sure hope it works for you so I can borrow it if I ever get some fancy lights.

Huh??? Solder?? What.... JK, The pins and the wiring came out if the plastic still crimped good, so I just covered the exposed wire with heat shrink, plugged em in and gooped the silicone on it!

Ya think I need to go back and solder???

:thumbsup: Hey MK. I don't know much about wiring but I wish you luck. Have a good one. Peg

Thanks Peg!! If you are building a TD, you will learn about wiring...trust me!!!! And I will be here to answer your questions!

Mk

Not if you are comfortable with it. If the boys say not then not it is.

Aint power great.

[bledsoe3]

I think crimped connections are fine. We use a few at work.

[Mary K]

Cool Beans Everyone!!! Its A go!!! The lights all work fine.

Now if I can just figure out how to wire the Amber light. Does it stay off and blink with the blinker/break light or stay on as a running light? Its kinda bright....

It's weird, the red light has a low light wire and a bright light wire. I assume the low light is wired to the brown (on all the time)and the bright light wire is wired to the break / blinker wire. Now the Amber has both wires but only the bright one works. What does this wire to? The brown or the break/blinker?

Thanks!!

Mk

[Podunkfla]

Mary K... I think in Florida you are not allowed to have amber tail or brake lights... Just turn signals? I know when I have rewired some motorcycle rear turn signals to stay on all the time for more rear visability and I had to change to red lenses. In those cases I changed the bulb sockets to dual filament #1157 bulbs... So the on all the time was the low watt element and the brake/turn was wired to the brighter element. Not sure if this answered your question though?

[Mary K]

Mary K... I think in Florida you are not allowed to have amber tail or brake lights... Just turn signals? I know when I have rewired some motorcycle rear turn signals to stay on all the time for more rear visability and I had to change to red lenses. In those cases I changed the bulb sockets to dual filament #1157 bulbs... So the on all the time was the low watt element and the brake/turn was wired to the brighter element. Not sure if this answered your question though?

That's right, I remember you saying something about that before...Yup I found that thread and it has to an amber light for blinking.

I guess it will have to be a blinker/break light...

POOP I wanted it to be on all the time cause its COOL!!!.. I guess I need to look in to buying another red break light somewhere down the line...

Another question.... if I wire the amber to the L/R Green/Yellow wires wont it come when I break??? Cause I only have 4 wires...or 5 counting the ground... Do I need to rewire for a 7 wire harness??? OH, crap, Now I got to go look that up... sheeeshha

Mk

[madjack]

...personally, I would wire it up to the blinker/brake circuit and not worry about it.................................

[Mary K]

...personally, I would wire it up to the blinker/brake circuit and not worry about it.................................

But I don't have anything else to do.....

Okay, I'm tired of looking anyway.


Mk

[brian_bp]

In a four-wire system, there are no distinct turn signals (as everyone has now realized) so without some additional logic circuitry there is no way to use the amber lights. Unlike some, I would not want them wired to the brake/turn circuits, because you would then have amber brake lights, and always-on amber lights is not an option for the rear of any vehicle, either. What if everybody decided to pick their own colour scheme for their vehicle lights?

One option is to buy or build a circuit to derive turn signals from the left and right brake/turns, and drive the amber lights (high intensity side) with them as pure turn signals. Offhand, I would guess this means a third-brake-light logic circuit plus a relay for each side to combine that side's brake/turn with the brake-only signal... but I haven't drawn up the exact circuit or logic diagram.

I suspect that an amber lamp with two levels is intended to be a side maker lamp which flashes brighter as a turn signal. That would be nice to have on the tear.