L.E.D. tail lights on the cheap!

[Longhorn Man]

I'll see if I can't re-enact the process and document it all on digi-film. It was pretty simple, and my cost was just shy of 50 bucks, but i do get a discount from the shop. I figure it can be duplicated by anyone anywhere in the U.S. (and maybe up north too, depending on your local laws) for less than 70 bucks. These already have D.O.T. aproval and no one can say anything about them.
On a bad note, suburban and panel owners need not apply. I tried mocking this up on cheesewagon's rig and it wouldn't work. Sorry guys/galls.
They aren't as bright or as cool as the real conversion from another member, but at this price, I don't think anyone will notice.
Here is the tail lights lit up only;

[Longhorn Man]

Well, some idiot (me) left my digi-cam in the rain last week and it has gotten very tempermental, and it did not want to work today. So I will try to explain it the best I can. If I can get the camera to work again soon, I will folow up with pictures.


Here it is with the brake lights on.

[Longhorn Man]

Here is the main part of the set up. For $25 each, (discounted a little) I bought 2 of these lights. Mine are a no name generic brand, and I am finding that this may make it hard to duplicate, but the light looks something like this. Napa should be able to get you something very similar.
Any U-haul place should be able to get one. The one I used had a hard plastic outer flange instead of the rubber grommet seen in this pic. The main thing was the lens. It was totally flat where most lights of this shape are kinda domed. (mod 60 is the shape/size) I had to cut off the flange, and when I did that, the light assembly fit right into the stock unmodified tail light lens. The edges of the lens held onto the LED perfectly. If it were a little loose, I would have used a dab of clear sillicone to hold it in place. DO NOT USE SUPER GLUE, it will discolor the lens.

[Longhorn Man]

Then, I removed the tail light bucket (or what ever they call the metal backing plate that has the actual light socket) It is held to the bed with 2 5/16 inch bolts. Once you have it unbolted, pull it out (with harness) untill it hangs down enough to access the entire tail light hole.
Cut the plug off of the harness.
If you were to place the LED lamp and tail lens assembly into the light hole on the bed, you'd see the lens is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from setting where it belongs. I used a 5 pound hammer and a 1/2 inch drive, 10 inch extention (My drift is at the shop) and proceded to beating the offending sheet metal out of the way. (it didn't take very much) Make a few blows to the metal, and try to fit it in. No need in pummeling it more than needed.
Once it fits in the hole to your liking, use a long skinny punch, and reach through the two mounting holes of the lens to mark the inner sheetmetal for drilling. You'll need some screws about 2 - 3 inches long. (about 2 1/2...but I didn't actually measure) Drill the holes, and test fit the lens and LED lamp assembly. These screws will be used to hold the lens in place since the buckets or backing plate will not be re-used. With some carefull pounding, it should fit fine, and the pressure from the screws will hold the led lamp against the sheet metal. So even if it was a tad loose (Which mine was actualle a bit too tight) in the lens, the lamp will be 'sandwiched' inbetween the lens and the metal.
Now for the electrical. The wire colors on the LED may well look odd. Mine had a red, white, and black. Luckily, mine was also labeled. The white was ground, which I crimped an eyelet on there and used one of the original 5/16 inch bolts to ground it. Then the tail light wire goes to the brown wire from your stock harness, and then the brake/turn wire would go to the green/yellow wire (depending on which side of the truck you are working on) Use good crimp on connectors and heat shrink to keep the nasty crap out of your connection. I used the crimp ons that have head shrink on them already. They can be found at NAPA, but they are a little spendy.
Now re-install the LED/lens assembly, and test it out.
As for the blinker issues that some people have reported with LED lights, you may or may not have issues with this.
I got lucky. My truck's turn signals will blink even if there are no lights installed. I don't know why it does this, or even if I like it like that or not. But that's how mine works. (It should not work like that. The indicator should stay on, and the remaining light (with one removed or burned out) should lite and stay lit) I do have electronic flashers on mine, and that may have something to do with it, but I do not know.
I DO know that NAPA has a small LED blinker unit that can be purchased, and is supposed to cure the non-blinking singnals from the reduced load that the LED will put on the blinker.
Now do the other side and enjoy.


I'm not joking, the very first time I drove it with these lights in there, some one at an intersection yelled asking where I got the LED conversion for my truck. He was driving an old camaro, but said he had a truck at home he was restoring.
This put an even bigger grin on my face.

[BtnkBndt]

This place has one thats 4 5/16 dia. x 13/16 deep. Still would be big, but maybe not when pulled out of its housing. Theres not much room to play with inside those huge step lights. What about the little load boxes on some sites, would it blink faster with just the load off the front?

http://www.led-r-us.com/lights.shtml

[Blue Beard]

What's the difference between this and using the bulbs that are being put out?

1157 LED bulbs.....?

[Longhorn Man]

Those LED bulbs don't put out much light, they put out even less light at an angle, and if I am thinking of the same ones, they are not DOT aproved, which seems trivial untill you go to get an inspection sticker. Some states (like PA) will fail you for "vanity lights", but if you can show them a DOT stamp, you can tell them what to do with there "vanity lights". Plus, the ones i am thinking of at Auto Zone are poorly made and don't last long at all.

[kbs71]

Here is a web site that has it all the diffrent lights mentioned in this article and round ones they also carey leds that will work in just about every bulb number that you can think of. I've put them in the tail light position and now I'm modding up some for the front. I also changed my dash bulbs to blue and they work great. After I get them done to my liking I'LL post it with pictures here.
www.superbrightleds.com

[ECM]

The reason your turn signals didn't change speed was the electronic flasher. Unlike traditional thermal flashers like the GM 550 & 552... electronic flashers don't blink really fast (or not at all) with one bulb burned out, and they don't blink really slow when you're towing a trailer (due to an extra lamps load).

A traditional flasher blinks at different rates depending on the load applied to it. An electronic one just blinks X times a second, wether it's even hooked up or not, as long as it is supplied power.

So for those of you contemplating LEDS, if your rig uses a 552 flasher (I'm new to Chevys, but I think they do) which looks like this:


You can simply go down to Advance Auto or Autozone and buy a Tridon EL-12 flasher (just look in the bulbs &fuses area):

[loblazer]

Grote Mfg. makes all these lenses and lamps. www.grote.com
Any dealer that supplies truckers would have them, my dealer does. Red and amber.

Also if you want an easier way, or bulbs for your stepside, check out Speedway Motors, a street rod supplier, www.speedwaymotors.com They sell an 1157 led replacement bulb that is 1 3/4" diameter. That would throw some good light and is a plug and play when you put in the right flasher. They also sell the flasher.

You can also buy a can of chrome spray and paint inside your bezel or put a sheet of aluminum foil in there. That will bounce the light around a lot.

I painted my housings and just put in halogen bulbs ad could not believe the difference!

Doug