Led headlight issue

[Jmoney01]

Go ahead and tell at me for led headlights, I know, l know, but man they are a lot brighter. Issue is, after I installed them, only one worked. Cleaned up the ground, the one that didn't work worked and the other one quit. Cleaned that ground and it switched again. Any ideas?
Merry Christmas to all
Jeremy

[May70]

Electrical issues can be stupid easy or it can be like 'chasing a grimlin'.

Money well spent is a decent multimeter and time spent on youtube learning how to use it.

I plan to put the led headlights in mine but haven't gotten there yet. First I would just triple check all connections are good and reground the one that stopped working. If you still have no luck unplug the headlight and test the leads to make sure you are getting voltage. Assuming you are running your ground to chassis you can check that as well with the meter. If both those check out your headlight went bad. If you dont have any voltage OR have too little you have a problem between the source and the plug.

It could be so many different things.

[REDROCKER652002]

Do a search. I think I remember something about needing a different dimmer or flasher or something like that. I could be wrong though, been drinking for a good part of the day. LOL.

[Luvlegs]

Is it possible you need 2 positives and negatives? I know LEDs are polarity sensitive and/or they won't work in series or parallel (and I think that depends on the lights themselves)

[Jmoney01]

Each headlight is grounded from the plug. I am going to switch sides to see if that changes anything and check voltage tomorrow. Guess just go from there

[BigBird05]

Try a test. Run 12v+ from the battery to each light separately and see if they light.

[Andy4639]

First off the head lights are feed from the drivers side light plug for both lights. Make sure the old plug is connected good. Make sure you don't have the wires crossed up any where. LED's don't like wires being crossed.
Head lights don't need a different dimmer or flasher or something like that.

[REDROCKER652002]

Originally Posted by Andy4639

First off the head lights are feed from the drivers side light plug for both lights. Make sure the old plug is connected good. Make sure you don't have the wires crossed up any where. LED's don't like wires being crossed.
Head lights don't need a different dimmer or flasher or something like that.

Sorry for misquoting. Will try and not make statements I am not sure of.

[Stocker]

Pretty sure LED turn signals need a different flasher. With the stock flasher, the bulbs flash on/off too rapidly. If I'm right about that....


OP, if you're not familiar with multimeters, they are fairly simple to use if you are just looking for voltage. Or you can check the basics with a test light.

[Andy4639]

Depending on what lights you have check the way you connected them and that the wires didn't get crossed in the connector's.

A while back some one posted they had found the kit they used had the wires reversed in the head light plug-in.

Head lights and turn signal's are 2 different system's so the flasher would have no effect with head lights. This is all depending on a stock unmolested electrical system in good order.

Yes if you are running full LED you need flashers. If you only have rear LED you don't. Well you shouldn't. I ran brake lights for years with LED's with no flasher.

[kaycee]

Would a new wire harness help any in his situation or a relay in the system? I'm asking , was wondering the same thing the other day.

[Jmoney01]

I will check the voltage at the plug. They are original plugs, but the nearly 50 year old wiring with me hacking on it for the last 30 might be questionable. Also, the high beam light is on I matter if I hit the foot button or not

[Jmoney01]

After screwing around with it for a while an remembering I hate wiring, I found the issue I think. Seems to be the ground. I will stop tomorrow and get a wire bus, run the grounds independent to the bus an then one ground wire. Should take out a lot of splices. Hope that does it.

[Big Kev-O]

Try testing them individually by connecting them directly to the battery with some jumper wires. Or swap them and see if the problem switched sides. Most of the LED headlight kits are Chinese made and cannot be trusted. You may have received a faulty LED. After you confirm they work then chase down your issue.

I am a tech nerd and love LEDs but have been let down by most of the aftermarket products. None of mine have made it over 2 years without burn out. Some did not work upon arrival. All were from reputable companies.