tail lamp woes

I just got done "de-bubbafying" the wiring for my taillights, and they're still not working 100%. Do signal flashers get weaker with age, or do they simply work or not? The pulse on mine varies slightly it seems. I know that the wiring is good to go now, but I'm still having some issues. Headlights, parking lamps and LR lamp work 100%. RR works whenever it feels like it... Both rear lamps light up VERY bright when the headlights are on (almost too bright it seems, or it may just be my imagination). Neither rear signal can be seen when the taillights are illuminated (taillights are bright enough to wash them out I think). Brake light only works on the LR.

I think I might be having some ground issues on the RR lamp, but I just don't know why the RR brake light doesn't work when the signal on that side does? If it were a bad ground, I would think that nothing would light up on that side.

I'm also going to pick up a new headlight switch, as mine is very old and sticks a bit.

Any common problem areas I should check?

-WRM

 

I'm curious as to what might be up with your lights, I'm having similar problems with mine. You checked all connections and grounds?

I think I pulled a wire too hard working on my headlight switch, but haven't had the Jeep on the street enough to justify checking.

 

I checked all the connections that I could think of, but will probably go over everything again tomorrow. I've got a stupid question... The bulbs that came with my taillights are 1157's, but the fronts are 1034 (or something like that); would it matter which bulb I use in the rear? Also, the bulb can be installed in the socket 2 ways; would it matter which way it's inserted into the socket? I'm not an electrical guy, so it seems to me that the bulb orientation in the socket would make a difference or else the wrong filament would light up with the signal or stop light?

-WRM

 

It sounds like you might have mixed up the wires on the tailights. In other words, your signal light wire is hooked up to the park light wire. Try switching the two wires on one of the tail lights. See if you notice a difference between the brightness of the 2 tail lights.

 

The taillights that have been on my jeep for a very long time are not originals, but they had 1154 6V bulbs in them. I noticed that the new 1154 is quite a bit brighter than the old 1154 that still worked. My flasher is a Signal-Stat 181 6V as well. If you are still on 6V I have noticed that my flashers can be intermittent unless the engine is running. Needs the extra juice I guess..

I found the 1154's at O'Reilly's....

I also took the lenses off and made sure that the same filaments in each bulb were working together. They are surprisingly bright so wear sunglasses when looking at the bare bulbs when lit...

 

Also, IIRC the 1157's have 2 small alignment pins that stick out from the metal base of the bulb. I think one is closer than the other to the glass part of the bulb. In the socket, you should have 2 alignment slots for these pins to slide into. One of the slots should be deeper than the other, to accomadate the lower alignment pin on the bulb.

 

I had a similar problem so I figured I would take one whole weekend, follow this diagram http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/wiper-switch-wiring-question-1311858/ replaced all my switches and the bullet connections that go to the switches, put bullet connections where ever I had the oem connectors and once I got everything working I solder everything. All my lights work perfectly fine now.:woot:

 

You de-bubba- fied your wiring.
Do you have a six volt system or a twelve volt system?
Brighter lights when the headlight switch is pulled on in the way you describe sounds like you are using 6 volt bulbs in a twelve volt system.
But maybe I am just tired, and it seems that way.

 

This sounds more like your problem.

 

They should only go in one way. If you look at the bulb you'll see two tangs that hold the bulb in and they are offset to fit the socket. If you have them in backward then the brigher filaments will be your tailights and the smaller filaments will be your brakelights -- the opposite of how it should be.

 

" I think I might be having some ground issues "

Any time with 6v/12v/or 24v wiring, and with rusty jeeps,

All ways make sure its all grounded.That is the most important thing with DC current . AC not so much as with DC, DC is all about the ground.

Think welding....... If the ground, is not attached to the piece of steel , no matter how much voltage, or amps, you have , you will never ever, even with all that power,you wont be able to weld ...

If a light works, then dosnt, 9 times out of 10 it will be a ground issue. or a chaffed wire.

make sure the socket wire/or the socket itself , is grounded to the body, and make sure the ground cable from battery to frame is good and grounded.

Ground is the number 1 prob with auto motive wiring.

And a bad ground can make things do wierd stuff.

If some lights are or seem brighter then normal , means you have some power feed back/or something is running in a series / or something is hooked up parallel doubling the load ( 12v bulb 8 ohms becomes 12v 4 ohms which will make it brighter )( pos to pos, neg to neg, = parallel circuit,)

pos to neg, ....and neg to ground ...and pos to power... creates a series circuit ) 2 bats in a series 24v system, 2 bats parallel creates same volts but have load capacity doubled ( think.. speakers, 2, 8 ohm in a series makes 16 ohms, 2, 8 ohm in a parallel circuit makes 4 ohms)



and sorry for all my post in advance, I suck at typing about as bad as anyone could be at sucking at typing .

I mean maybe on a good day 2 words a min.

 

The only diff between 1157 and 1034 is the brightness which means hotter burn/more candle power which translates to shorter or longer life span. The load the bulb pulls on the flasher will change the speed of the flash cycle. It's best to use the same number bulb for all four corners.

IMPORTANT---The bulb and socket are designed to work together and is keyed for one direction only. Yes you can force the bulb into the socket backwards but that will screw up your whole stop/turn circuits. The alignment pins on the base of the bulb (see one high and one low) must match the high and low slots in the socket.

After you are very sure the bulbs have been inserted properly, then and only then should you swap the wires at the light to produce the correct results. If your tail or front light comes on bright with the headlight switch "ON" and you can't see the bulb flashing for turn, then it is probably wired backwards. Swap the wires. HTH

 

Like Curtcanada says, check that the wiring has not been reversed. The "brake" filament is much brighter than the running light.

Also make sure ALL contact pins and sockets are cleaned well, and the units are well grounded. Bad connections can cause weird feedbacks through the bulbs.

 

I'll check all this stuff out today; thanks! Since the fronts have 1034's in them, I'll swap the rears back to that as well. I guess I never paid close enough attention to the "ears" on the bulb; I just figured they were the same size/length. As for reversing the wires, anything is possible. I couldn't find a wiring diagram for these lights, but similar lights (with 2 wires; red and black) state that the black wire on the bulb is for the stoplight, and the red is for signal/tail lights. So, in my case, the stock yellow wire (which goes to both sides of the Jeep) should hook up to black, and the left/blue wire and right/red(orange?) wire both hook up to red on the new lamp.

These are the lights I have : Blazer B55UW


I'll mess with it today and see what I can find out.

-WRM

 

You can't have a wire for signal/tail as stated above. Your stop and signal wire is one and the same. The tail wire will connect to both rear lights and the stop/signal or stop/turn will be a separate feed wire.

 

Walt is dead right.

 

Yes, that's what I meant to say; my apologies. I put the 1034's back in the lamps (and made sure that they were in the correct way), and the smaller filament lights up with the taillights and turn signals as it should; didn't have to swap around the wires. The problems I have seem to be intermittent though... First thing today, I turned the headlights on, but no taillights. Without doing anything else, I turned on the left turn signal, and it came on...along with the taillights. After that, every time I turned the headlights on, the taillights would shine as well.

This will take a little more poking around to see what's going on...

-WRM

 

Bubbafied wire repairs are usually the cause of this. Sometimes if a wire is broken or cut, they will trim the ends of the wires and twist them together with their fingers then cover it with a ball of tape. These type of splices will usually cause this problem along with bad grounds.