New Exterior Lights / LEDs

[JointTech]

Got all new exterior Lenses/bulbs/kit in LED.
New headlights and headlight relay kit.
The front parking/tail lights/side markers are sealed LEDs in the lense.
Got new lenses and replacement LED bulbs for the backup lights. (nobody makes a sealed reverse light lense with LEDs )


The taillights and front parking lights use a 1157 adapter.
The sidemarkers are hardwire. 3 wires. ground/parking/turn
parking is a less bright than turn. It looks like turn uses more LEDs.

The rear sidemarkers took an extra minute of thinking to get them to work.
Since the OE is only 2 wire and didnt blink i had to connect parking and ground to the original harness. Then I spliced the third wire for turn (which is a way longer wire on the lense thankfully) to the turn signal wires for the rear.
Yellow on the drivers side and dark green on the passenger side.

I will start on the front sidemarkers and new headlights tomorrow

So far I'm pretty happy with the items. The lenses are all tough plastic and the LEDs are really bright.

The only think I'm not thrilled with is the taillight gaskets i bought. They are neoprene and way thinner and flimsier than the OE gasket that came out. I think if I lived somewhere with any rain I would have siliconed the lense since LEDs cant be replaced I shouldn't have to ever take it off.

Will get pics of them installed tomorrow.

[Andy4639]

Just curious, why do you want the rear sides to blink?Seems like a lot of extra wiring.

[JointTech]

also it wasnt a lot extra since I already had all the rear light wires exposed from getting them all working when i first bought it. So I just used one of those crimp two wires things to slice into a wire without cutting it. wrapped the **** out of it with electical tape and she blinks

[Scott>72-GMC]

Gotta love bad drivers
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[Codez67Chevy]

Are the headlights sealed beam? If not get some HIDs I love them its like daylight in front of you. Im also sure others will frown a pon them cuz they are too damn bright when they come at you, but cant beat the visibility at night.

[JointTech]

yea i just got some sylvania xtravision silvers. I may do the non-sealed beams if I dont like these. Ran out of budget this month. My finance department will only let me spend a car payments worth... This truck wont ever get driven at night anyway. Its a home depot grocery getter.

[69Rumbler]

post some pictures when you are done i want to see how it looks .. agreed cali drives are bad !!

[piecesparts]

Where did you get your LED light kit?

[JointTech]

LMC. the part list is in the first post.

[Square_78]

Originally Posted by Andy4639

Just curious, why do you want the rear sides to blink?Seems like a lot of extra wiring.

My rear side markers blink with the turn signals. Is this not standard??

[JointTech]

i read on another thread that a guy did a poll and couldnt find any rhyme or reason why some blink and some dont. Mine didnt.

[Mayo]

I have never heard of the rear ones blinking, only the fronts on some trucks
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[70STOVEBOLT]

What are the comments about bad drivers all about?

[travisfraughton]

looking forward to the pics.

[No ID]

Originally Posted by travisfraughton

looking forward to the pics.

X2 led>incandescent
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[JointTech]

Originally Posted by 70STOVEBOLT

What are the comments about bad drivers all about?

mod deleted my answer to why did you make the rear sidemarkers blink. My answer with some colorful language was that california drivers suck and i need all the lights I can get....

Heres some pics. Not the best so I made a movie.
I did notice one funny thing today. The rear sidemarkers are also brake lights... Since the taillight brake light is the same wire as the turn signal and I tapped off the turn signal to make my sidemarkers light up I now have side brake lights as well. LOL

I hooked up the front LEDs today. Youll notice my parking and sidemarker blink at the same time. I completely bypassed the sidemarker wires and tapped directly off the parking lights.

I did that because the front sidemarkers blink by removeing power from the running light circut. This worked but didnt take advantage of the second set of brighter LEDs in the sidemarkers. By tapping off the front running lights I get dimmer running and bright flashing.

I also couldnt get a pic of the brakes by myself but they are bright!

Also need to trace down a problem with the reverse lights which never worked.

ill put in the headlight relay kit and new lights tomorrow.

View My Video
how do you embed a video so you can just click it in the thread???

[70STOVEBOLT]

Those are bright. I kinda like the side markers blinking w/the turn signal.

[mrolds88]

JointTech, do yourself a favor if you used crimp connectors. Remove them and solder and shrink tube the connections. For those that have 3 or more wires, after shrinktubing, hit the ends with more than 1 wire with silicone. Even in a dry climate those crimp connections will draw moisture. Then comes the electrical gremlins.

[JointTech]

i was thinking about doing that but since this is pretty much the desert i didnt go for it.
also soldering while standing on your head suuuuucks

My buddy was laughing at my extra feet of wire I used on each connection. Maybe when/if I shorten those Ill solder instead of recrimping.

[JointTech]

I put in the headlights and headlight relay kit today.
I need to adjust the headlights once it gets dark but I can already see both lights are the same brightness and much brighter than before so we have an improvement.

Relay kit went in without much trouble. I routed it up over the radiator along with the original harness.

The only problem I found which is pretty annoying is the extension that connects the relays to the harness is about a foot to short to put it anywhere the relays can be mounted. I moved the harness all over and cant see a way it would ever work like the pictures of the relays mounted on the inner fender or beside the battery.
I used zip ties to keep them out of the way.

Now on to getting the reverse lights working.

[Square_78]

I went out last night and checked my side marker lights. Both the front and rear blink alternately with the turn signals. Its on a 1970 GMC 1500.

[70cst]

Great thread

[JointTech]

Found the problem with my backup lights. I looked at the neutral safety switch and first thing I saw was the 2 purple wires were jumpered not on the switch. The backup lights were still plugged in but I got no conductivity between the to connectors at any gear selector position. I pulled it off and the thing is crusty. Barely moves by hand and sounds grindy.

My small parts house doesnt work on weekends and it would be monday before they have one so I went to crap boys and ordered one to be here tomorrow for $11.

Hopefully that fixes it at which point all my exterior lights will be working.

[JointTech]

got the new NSS and it seems to be the wrong one.

Good news is that the backup lights do come on when I manually move the switch.

Bad news is I just found out one of my LEDs for the backup lights is RED.... Gotta call LMC tomorrow and get it swapped for white.

[JointTech]

Got another NSS from the real parts store. 10 minutes to install and adjust. woot. got backup lights and no start in drive anymore.

I called LMC about the red LED they sent. She's shipping me out a white one and told me to keep the red one. I was like but its a $25 bulb you dont want me to send it back? She said no you can keep it or throw it away.

Not bad for service although I dont have much need for a single red led...

Ill get pics of my backup LEDs when the new white one shows up. Not much use showing a red and a white.