LED front signal lights for 80-86ers

4493 Views 17 Replies 5 Participants Last post by 85f150, Apr 29, 2004

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · Apr 25, 2004

I've been dying to do this for three years !

Friday Princess Auto had 13 bulb LED brake/turn/tailights on sale for only $20.00 CDN each (that's $14.00 American).

I grabbed two, got them home and tried them in the 86 front signal lenses I'd busted loose from their housings, see photos;

http://www.superford.org/registry/vehicles/detail.php?id=4970&s=17710#content

They were a near perfect fit, snug along the lengths and almost long enough to cover the entire stock 86 lense. Whipped out at night to the Bronco and clipped it to the battery. Even before I cut the lid of the red lense off they turned the stock 86 lense from a dull yellow to a deep, bright orange.

I plan to silicone them to the lense to keep water out and PL300 two plastic toilet lid bolt/studs to the sides of the LED housing. As luck would have it, their centers will pass through the stock mounting holes perfectly when glued in place.

Now I just have to come up with two dummy 1157s so I can solder wires to them and twist them into the stock sockets, in case I ever want to go back to stock.

There you go 86ers enjoy !

Sixlitre

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Fireguy50

· #2 · Apr 25, 2004

intresting

Grote part # 44890 is a flasher ment for LED's 1-2amp draw

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 25, 2004

Fireguy50 said:
intresting

Grote part # 44890 is a flasher ment for LED's 1-2amp draw

Thanks Ryan

Do you mean the stock signal wires will fry the LED brake lights with too much amperage to them ?

Sixlitre

Fireguy50

· #4 · Apr 25, 2004

no that flasher doesn't need dummy lights.
But if you are leaving the rear lights stock, you don't need dummy lights either.

you only need dummy lights in the brake circuits for the cruise.

what is the measurments of the stock housings and the LED lights you used?

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 26, 2004

Fireguy50 said:
no that flasher doesn't need dummy lights.
But if you are leaving the rear lights stock, you don't need dummy lights either.

you only need dummy lights in the brake circuits for the cruise.

what is the measurments of the stock housings and the LED lights you used?

Ryan

The stock 80-86 amber lense has inside measurements of 2 5/16" X 7 11/16". The red LED tailight I am using is a tapered almost 2 5/16" down to 2 3/16" X 6 5/8".

Sixlitre

juggernaut89

· #6 · Apr 26, 2004

Could i use these for taillights? how did u wire them so they light up when ur lights are on and get brighter when the blinkers on?

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 26, 2004

juggernaut89 said:
Could i use these for taillights? how did u wire them so they light up when ur lights are on and get brighter when the blinkers on?

Juggernaut89

I don't see why not, they are actually tailights. They have three wires; ground, bright filament(brake or signal funtion) and dimmer filament (tailight that comes on with headlights).

Sixlitre

juggernaut89

· #8 · Apr 26, 2004

o, well will i need to get "dummy" lights? so the system doesnt think theres a bulb out?

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 26, 2004

juggernaut89 said:
o, well will i need to get "dummy" lights? so the system doesnt think theres a bulb out?

I may be the only dummy in this thread as I don't understand what dummy lights are. I bought these as sealed trailer brake/tail lights with 3 wires ready to hook up. All I did was hacksaw off the lid so to speak.

They work fine touching them to the battery and I assume they were engineered sealed to work just fine with regular 12 volt power.

Sixlitre

juggernaut89

· #10 · Apr 26, 2004

I assume they were engineered sealed to work just fine with regular 12 volt power.

LEDs draw less amps, but run on 12v so the system thinks theres a bulb out because they use less power

85f150

· #11 · Apr 26, 2004

just a quick question, how did you secure the stock lens back to the grill...since you had hacked out the white studs the to nuts go on? is it possible to cut the led housing smaller to fit betweenthe to studs? i was thinking about something like this becacuse it seems like people never see my turn signals on :shrug

Fireguy50

· #12 · Apr 26, 2004

juggernaut89 said:
LEDs draw less amps, but run on 12v so the system thinks theres a bulb out because they use less power

Almost correct

Less current draw makes the flasher switch much faster
so your blinkers could freak people if you only have LED's.

also LED's don't have a filliment that attaches one side to ground
so the cruise will not work if you use only LEDs for brake lights.

So you would need a "dummy load" to fix both problems.
you can use a light bulb somewhere in the system, or buy the real gizmo

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 26, 2004

85f150 said:
just a quick question, how did you secure the stock lens back to the grill...since you had hacked out the white studs the to nuts go on? is it possible to cut the led housing smaller to fit betweenthe to studs? i was thinking about something like this becacuse it seems like people never see my turn signals on :shrug

85F150

Yes, that's exactly why I'm doing this, nobody sees mine either. You get those dirty looks like " oh sure don't start signalling til now you prick!" . It's worse at night because with my set-up the headlights are so strong they completely overwhelm any signalling going on.

I guess you probably could hollow out just the center of the housing (good thought) and retain the studs. This LED housing looks just about the perfect length for that.

Now you've got me thinking ! I haven't yet glued the toilet studs on these old units yet and I got them free from a yard so I could do what you're suggesting to another set and save myself the grief !

Thanks !

Fireguy50

Thanks again, I've learned a pile from your posts. I'm sticking these in the front signal lights, so by not putting them in the taillights I'll be able to retain my innoperative cruise (I'd have never, ever figured out that would have affected the cruise).

It'll have to signal awful fast to pi$$ me off as I'm attempting to be seen and not hit or pi$$ off other drivers. Up here we're by and large un-armed but I can see how I wouldn't want it pi$$ing off L.A motorists or people out 85F150's way.

Sixlitre

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Fireguy50

· #14 · Apr 27, 2004

Pi$$ off people? LOL
Every time I turn the key to RUN, somebody is going to get pi$$ed somewhere.
It's tradition when I'm driving.
Full size truck, short wheel base, fast engine, birds eye view, sag PS pump.
It's alost the perfect sprts car

I ruined a 02 Cobra's day 3 months ago on the highway.
we could both go 95MPH, he could go faster, but was limited to 75MPH because he couldn't see around trafic.
I could see everything and left him way behind LOL

Sixlitre

Discussion Starter · #15 · Apr 27, 2004

Fireguy50 said:
Pi$$ off people? LOL
Every time I turn the key to RUN, somebody is going to get pi$$ed somewhere.
It's tradition when I'm driving.
Full size truck, short wheel base, fast engine, birds eye view, sag PS pump.
It's alost the perfect sprts car

I ruined a 02 Cobra's day 3 months ago on the highway.
we could both go 95MPH, he could go faster, but was limited to 75MPH because he couldn't see around trafic.
I could see everything and left him way behind LOL

Too true

but old age has got me trying to be a better corporate citizen, though I do get a wild hair once in a while.

Toasted a Maxima two Summers ago as we were both going for broke for a freeway on-ramp. My lane ran out so I had to make it, and did, beating him out 0-45 mph. Surprised and pi$$ed him off no end, no doubt. Glad he was unarmed then !

Sixlitre

85f150

· #16 · Apr 28, 2004

:lol up
i used to do that crap all the time in my car until i got pulled over at least once a week for a month straight....but no tickets yet thank my lucky stars...i hated pulling off my plow setup on the front for summer because it also removes the nice big turn signals.....i also have the headlight issue because i replaced them with the clear lenses and 55/110 w bulbs (DOT approved of course :brownbag) i might go pick some LEDS now and try this...my cruise don't work and i am not changing the rears since they are not a prob.....

i was also getting ready in a set of strobes/leds mounted above the tailights flush with the sheetmetal (a few more holes never hurt anything) and have yet to determine where at up front....since evrywhere i plow around me in winter is on hills and i don't need to get hit by some crazy ass driver

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Davids78Bronco

· #17 · Apr 28, 2004

I'm liking this lazy way of having LEDs. For those of us w/o CC, we can use this principle for the taillights, right?

85f150

· #18 · Apr 29, 2004

the way it sounds to me is if you replace all four turn signals and the brake lights that you need to rig in a bulb somewhere so the sytem is drawing enough amps or the blinker will blink real fast....or there is a device for this :shrug

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