When I listen to others about diodes I win!!!

[ddragon63]

phase 1 is complete!!!!!

Diodes are in and the blinkers and indicator light now all talk nice to each other!!!! WooHoo!!!!!

now phase 2....

When i put in the lower led tail/brake it makes my upper tail/brake/blinker lights go hard red! take out lower insert standard 1157 all back to normal. hmmmm IDEAS??!! Load resistors??!! give up on that bulb and keep the 1157 in??!!

[CatatonicBug]

If you have LEDs in one set of brake lights, you MUST have LEDs in ALL brake light locations. You can't mix and match.

[ddragon63]

If you have LEDs in one set of brake lights, you MUST have LEDs in ALL brake light locations. You can't mix and match.

If I put the led in the lower socket (factory tail brake) it makes the LEDs in the trunk trip over to the bright side. If I remove that lower led and install a standard 1157 the uppers go back to normal. If I have no bulb in the lower it acts the same as if I had the led in there. It's seems to not be sensing the lower led as a bulb. Also if I have the led in the lower my tail light warning light comes on as if I have a burnt out bulb. I tried removing the lead from the tail to the warning light and it gives me no help. I'm gonna go over my tail light wiring I did @ the trailer box and see if just in my wiring. I'm sure its something simple I've overlooked. Or I need to add resistance to that 1 circuit. That's my theory atleast.

[CatatonicBug]

The dash warning light on that '79 may be the issue. Try disconnecting that terminal. It senses load, and will not work for the LEDs anyway.

[ddragon63]

The dash warning light on that '79 may be the issue. Try disconnecting that terminal. It senses load, and will not work for the LEDs anyway.

I tried that last night with no luck. I even took the wire out of the circuit and no luck. Which lleaves me to believe its probably in my wiring I did. May have put the factory tail/brake on wrong side of the circuit for the trailer box. I will investigate tonight and get back to you. Like I said its probably something simple I over looked

[crazy steve]

'79 Special 'light checker' and LEDs

'Bug is right that the warning light is the problem, but disconnecting one wire isn't enough....

You've likely got two things going on here; first, that 'light checker' is supposed to monitor your brake and taillight so if either burns out, the indicator light will come on. I'm assuming it's looking for a specific load as that's typically how these work, but the factory manual has zip about this thing (the only place it appears is on the main harness diagram). But your LED lamp presents too small of a load, so it sees that as a bad bulb. The other likely issue is you've tied two previously separate circuits together (brake and turns) through that convertor, so if there's any 'leakage' in that, that's probably confusing the checker too.

So you need to disconnect that completely to eliminate the problem as I see it. You'll lose the light check function, but everything else will work normally. Now, I can't tell you what this looks like or where it is, but it should be a 'black box' and have a six-wire plug on it. The wire colors (according to the diagram) are: blue/yellow (power for the taillight), yellow (power from the brake light), brown (12v power), blue (power to the taillight), black (ground), and black/red (oil pressure).

To disconnect this, unplug the box. Now, the only wires that go 'through' the checker are the two taillight wires, so jumper the blue/yellow and blue together to make the taillight work. All the other wires are t-taps (ending at the box) so simply 'safeing' them so they can't short to ground is all that's needed.

I won't guarantee this is 100% accurate info as I've found mistakes on the factory diagrams before, but it should at least be close. If the taillight colors are right, don't worry about the rest of them.

[ddragon63]

'Bug is right that the warning light is the problem, but disconnecting one wire isn't enough....

You've likely got two things going on here; first, that 'light checker' is supposed to monitor your brake and taillight so if either burns out, the indicator light will come on. I'm assuming it's looking for a specific load as that's typically how these work, but the factory manual has zip about this thing (the only place it appears is on the main harness diagram). But your LED lamp presents too small of a load, so it sees that as a bad bulb. The other likely issue is you've tied two previously separate circuits together (brake and turns) through that convertor, so if there's any 'leakage' in that, that's probably confusing the checker too.

So you need to disconnect that completely to eliminate the problem as I see it. You'll lose the light check function, but everything else will work normally. Now, I can't tell you what this looks like or where it is, but it should be a 'black box' and have a six-wire plug on it. The wire colors (according to the diagram) are: blue/yellow (power to the taillight), yellow (power from the brake light), brown (12v power), blue (power to the taillight), black (ground), and black/red (oil pressure).

To disconnect this, unplug the box. Now, the only wires that go 'through' the checker are the two taillight wires, so jumper the blue/yellow and blue together to make the taillight work. All the other wires are t-taps (ending at the box) so simply 'safeing' them so they can't short to ground is all that's needed.

I won't guarantee this is 100% accurate info as I've found mistakes on the factory diagrams before, but it should at least be close. If the taillight colors are right, don't worry about the rest of them.

Ah the stuff we do to save a few amps of power
Let me double check my converter wiring. Then ill start hunting down the rest. Thanks for the info guys... Steve you have kept with me on thru my battle for that I must say thanks. Id really like to keep my oil warning light. So I may end up with the 1157 in the lower socket if its gonna be a mess of drama. Really don't wanna run a load resistor on a constant. That think will get hot as hell. But the good news is all my blinkers work right

[crazy steve]

Pulling that light checker out won't change how your oil light works, so no worries there...

[ddragon63]

Pulling that light checker out won't change how your oil light works, so no worries there...

Ok I'm following you now.... Duh Don!:eek:

I removed the wire off the socket last night with no luck. You talking about the light checker unit they show in the back of my manual. Course the book don't tell you where its locate. K if its not my f up @ the wiring in the back I'll go hunting for a black box and let you know what I figure out. Thanks again Steve!

[bikerphil]

Light checker is located under the left side cover attached to a bracket on the forward framerail, here's a pic of the unit...

[ddragon63]

Thanks Phil

[Rasputin]

Make sure to double check all the grounds as this may be like it was, as a part of the previous problem, as you said it was crumbled. And NO I am not gonta say do the diode thing . Sorry if I was one of the ones who browbeat you, but hey I try best as I can.

[ddragon63]

Make sure to double check all the grounds as this may be like it was, as a part of the previous problem, as you said it was crumbled. And NO I am not gonta say do the diode thing . Sorry if I was one of the ones who browbeat you, but hey I try best as I can.

Ya its all good. some times I need a good brow beating to get the idea thru my thick skull that I may need to try something other are suggesting. I'm thinking i know where my fault is in my wiring just gotta double check it when i get home. I'll post here soon what I find. Gotta get these pesky customers out of here so I can lock up the store and get on with the important things in life.... Like beer and motorcycles.

[Rasputin]

Ok, glad to hear we are ok on this subject. Have fun and if I can help you will hear from me

[ddragon63]

Here is what I found

ok so I took the light checker out and jumped the blue and blue/yellow like steve suggested. This made the tail warning light go away and the tails in the trunk go back down to the dim side.... Now bleed thru is back BUT tails only. SOOOOO.....
I'm going to go ahead an point mt finger @ my trailer box?!

So... I'm taking a break for a second! I'm having a beer talking to you guys while my hair line retreats further up my forehead...

Would installing diodes in line with the 2 trunk blinkers stop the bleed thru?

Once again if I put a standard 1157 in the lower tail/brake light everything above works normal. The LED pisses off the upper I guess... being that its only in the rear I'm just gonna assume my trailer box is to blame. Sooooo either I keep the 1157 in the bottom, put a load resistor across the led @ the bottom. try some diodes in the rear somewhere, or???? help please!