Front Blinker in Tube Bumper

[petescoffee]

Another Blinker questions. This is on my 1982 truck

Have a tube bumper up front and bought a amber trailer/truck marker light to use as the front turn signal. This light only has one wire. I hooked it up to the green wire and the light blinks (blinks fast but I'll try a different flasher for that) what does the 2nd wire that goes to the blinker do. It is White with a Black stripe.
I left it unconnected for now.


Thanks,
Dave

 

[KLF]

That is the ground. All grounds in the factory harness are white with a black stripe, AFAIK. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that all white wires with a black stripe is a ground. The light you are using must be getting the ground from the mount.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

X2

The new light you have probably has a grounded housing, that gets its ground from where it's mounted to the body, so the second white/black wire is not needed now.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Dave,
I hit a deer the other day, which took out my driver's side blinker, and scabbed together a pigtail using a marker light exactly as the one you described.
What I did was unscrew the backing plate that houses the bolt.

I tinned up the ends on a length of wire, and crimped it into an eye-connector and unscrewed the backing plate that houses the bolt. Slipped the eye through one of the screws, and reinstalled them tight, then bolted it to my front bumper with a pair of nylocks, connected this new ground leg to the stock ground, and it works for now.

Unfortunately, it's pretty dim; I used a 4-year old LED from my parts box, and whipped the entire pig-tail up from whatever scrap connectors, wire, and heat-shrink I had on-hand. Were I to do this again, I'd probably get a nylon washer or two between my bumper just to guarantee the only ground is mine.

If you'd like, I can upload a picture come daylight. Hopefully this helps.

 

[petescoffee]

This all helps,
Thanks,
Dave

 

[toy4xfun]

dave is it an L E D?

if it is that is why your blinker is blinking fast, they sell a resistor you can put in line with it to make it blink normal speed.

 

[Combat Chuck]

This all helps,
Thanks,
Dave

I'll snap a pic of it today. Visibility's poor on it, though. It's not nearly as bright as it was when I bought it a few years back. In daylight, people hardly notice it, I just about got smacked by a Subaru 'cause they weren't looking.

Jason at Yodaman pointed out that Wal-Mart sells the full-size ovals for about 12 bucks, so I may go there soon enough.

 

[petescoffee]

New front Blinker works with the tube bumper.
I bought a amber cab marker light from Napa part number 1001AD that is made by Truck-lite.
I actually bought 2 others that did not look or fit right on the truck before settling on this one. Sorry for bad cell phone picture. This one had a metal bracket on it already for mounting.

I was able to fix the rapid blinking by following the directions I found here on mud.Fortunately my flasher on my 82 pickup was the same as in the picture. One of the easiest, cheapest modifications I have done.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Cool! I never knew about the resistor trick, I think I'll look into this mod myself.
Sorry I never posted up the picture, I've lost my camera's memory card.

 

[petescoffee]

Sam,
That was almost to easy. I cut out the resistor, no soldering no nothing and it worked.

Dave

 

[toy4xfun]

i think i might have to do that too, i have an aftermarket one from superbright led but i had to make wire leads for it.

 

[Combat Chuck]

i think i might have to do that too, i have an aftermarket one from superbright led but i had to make wire leads for it.

I'm seriously considering collecting as many plugs as I can from pick-n-pull, and soldering up as many LED pigtails as possible for replacements and spares.


Thanks for the info Dave!