Mac-
What you describe is the way my lights were wired when the trooper pulled me
over to tell me that he could not see my tail lights from behind. I had the
stop and turn wires on the bright filament, and the running lights on the
other filament (1157 bulbs). Problem is that with the small lenses and
thick glass, the dimmer of the filaments just didn't show up enough.
Smokey Culver
'50 3600 5-window (mine)
'56 3600 (hers)
League City, Texas
-----Original Message-----
From: Mac Kinghorn <kinghorn@granite.mb.ca
To: oletrucks <oletrucks@autox.team.net
Date: Saturday, May 20, 2000 10:00 AM
Subject: [oletrucks] Tail lights
Hey Guys
Think about this. Have you ever driven down the highway behind a vehicle
that you can barely see the tail lights functioning on? When they have the
turn signal on or at night were the running light is so bright that you can
barely see the brake light come on when the brakes are applied?
This happens when the tail lights have been wired incorrectly. In reading
the posts over the last few days, regarding the tail light problems, it
appears that there are several of you that have, or are about to, wire your
lights in a manner that will create problems for those that have to follow
you.
The tail light bulb is a dual filament bulb that is mounted in a double pig
tail socket. One of the filaments of the bulb is considerably more bright
than the other and this filament is for the Brake/Turn indication. This
can
be confirmed by grounding the base of the bulb and applying either 6 or 12
volts, depending on rated voltage of the bulb, to the lead contact points
on the bottom of the bulb. With the bulb mounted in the tail lamp socket
determine which wire feeds the brighter of the filaments THEN HOOK THE FEED
FROM THE BRAKE AND TURN SIGNAL TO THIS WIRE. The other wire on the turn
signal lamp is for the RUNNING LIGHTS. If you have jury - rigged a turn
signal switch on your vehicle go to your local parts store and pick up a
converter normally used when wiring a vehicle with separate turn and brake
lights for a trailer feed where there are only brake/turn lights and
running
lights. The other option is to FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT CAME WITH THE
SWITCH AND INSTALL IT ACCORDINGLY AS IT SHOULD BE SET UP TO USE A FEED FROM
YOUR BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH IN THE SAME MANNER THAT THE CONVERTER MENTIONED
ABOVE DOES.
This will allow you to wire your lights properly and have them work so that
they are CLEAR AND VISIBLE TO THE DRIVERS BEHIND YOU.
Good luck and SAFE TRUCKING
Mad Mac
52 Chev 1300 & it's on the road today!!!
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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