LED tail lights with FJ40 steering column (1 Viewer)

[schleb]

Here's the deal, I'm installing a Painless 18 circuit wiring harness and trying to use the stock turn switch and ignition. I've got the ignition switch all wired up and working correctly, but am stumped on the tail lights. The FJ column doesn't support integrated tail lights, so I bought one of the tail light converters at Walmart, traced out all of the wires coming out of the swith and wired it up. Nothing. Here's what I've come up with: Without the converter installed I get blinkers, brakes, and tails; but no blinkers when on the brakes. When I install the converter as instructed I'm not getting any output at all (I've grounded the converter). I thought it might be a bad converter and picked up a second one and had the same trouble. One thing I did notice with the converter installed is that with the turn switch activated I'm getting power to both right and left blinkers leads...

Anyone have similar experiences and/or any suggestions?

 

[Ron Helmuth]

just from what I have read

I have no direct experience with this, but in reading other threads the most common theme is the ground is suspect.

Do not presume that just because it looks to be a good solid ground that it is-if not to bare metal then it is intermittent-remember that not all metal surfaces are truly "grounded".

Hope that helps you. My limited interior wiring experience has shown the ground to be significant in making things work. You may need to be sharing a common ground with your other signals/lights.

Best of luck and I hope you are able to get it working.

 

[arndog]

I am contemplating the same configuration as you describe. do you have a multi-meter. As suggested trace the circuit with a multi-meter and check your grounds and voltage.

arndog

 

[schleb]

Thanks for the replies, I called Painless and they are supposed to email me a diagram that uses two relays to solve the problem. I suspected the ground as well, but I used a jumper wire to the negative battery terminal with the same results. I do have a meter and have traced everything out, hopefully Painless will save the day!

 

[splitshot]

If you don't hear from him by monday, I'll hopefully have an answer for you. I'm picking up my LED's this afternoon.
Should be just like std tail lights; 1-lead ground, 1-tail, and one is shared turn/stop.
I've been swaping out all our tractor/trailers with no problems.

 

[mattcrandle]

Thanks for the replies, I called Painless and they are supposed to email me a diagram that uses two relays to solve the problem. I suspected the ground as well, but I used a jumper wire to the negative battery terminal with the same results. I do have a meter and have traced everything out, hopefully Painless will save the day!

when you do hear from them and/or get it figured out, make sure to post up the solution. i am getting ready to wire mine up as well and would appreciate any tips they pass along.

 

[F-junker]

What type of flasher are you using? A load dependant flasher will not work with LED lights (blinkers), they don't have enough load on the circut to trip the blinker circut. the esay fix is a non load dependant flasher ie a flasher for a tractor trailer rig. you can get them at a truck place or a truck stop.

 

[Chromed]

I belive its the way the cruiser switch is wired internally. Its kinda of hard to explain but I had similar issue but its been about seven years so its foggy. If you were to look in the switch circuts and see how the contacts are wired i beleive it will make sense. Thats how I finnaly figured it out I first bought an after market add on then switched to chevy column. This will prob not help but?

 

[projektdotnet]

You'll need an electronic (non-load dependant) as stated earlier and also you may need a trailer brake light adapter (available at checker or autodrone). I installed these two parts and my LED rears worked great

 

[schleb]

Problem Solved!

I've got to say, the tech support from Painless was top-notch. They sent me a diagram that uses two 30 amp SPDT relays to split up the signal from the brake switch, if anyone is interested in the diagram just send me a PM and I'll email it to you (or someone can post it if they have the know how).

So here is what I had:
1978 FJ40 with absolutely no wiring installed
Painless 18 circuit harness
Using original FJ40 turn switch and ignition switch, Painless headlight switch

Here is how I wired the turn switch:
Key-on power from the fuse block comes into the switch through the LED flasher
Right and Left signal wires coming out of the switch connected to Painless front/rear left and right signal wires at the column
Right and Left rear turn/signal wires connected to relays on firewall
Wire from brake switch is split to run into both relays
Each relay is grounded seperately
Right and Left rear turn/signal come out of the relays and run to the lights

I now have tail lights, signals, brake lights, and blinking brake lights


Hopefully this will help someone else someday

 

[tuolumnejim]

I've got to say, the tech support from Painless was top-notch. They sent me a diagram that uses two 30 amp SPDT relays to split up the signal from the brake switch, if anyone is interested in the diagram just send me a PM and I'll email it to you (or someone can post it if they have the know how).

So here is what I had:
1978 FJ40 with absolutely no wiring installed
Painless 18 circuit harness
Using original FJ40 turn switch and ignition switch, Painless headlight switch

Here is how I wired the turn switch:
Key-on power from the fuse block comes into the switch through the LED flasher
Right and Left signal wires coming out of the switch connected to Painless front/rear left and right signal wires at the column
Right and Left rear turn/signal wires connected to relays on firewall
Wire from brake switch is split to run into both relays
Each relay is grounded seperately
Right and Left rear turn/signal come out of the relays and run to the lights

I now have tail lights, signals, brake lights, and blinking brake lights


Hopefully this will help someone else someday

Could you PM me that diagram? And it may be a candidate for the FAQ.

 

[mattcrandle]

i spent part of saturday and most of sunday figuring out the wiring for the new harness (ez wiring, not painless, but i am sure they are almost the same), turn signal switch, brake switch, hazard switch, and LED tailights. first i tried to wire it up according to the wiring diagram for my year cruiser - no luck. switched a bunch of wires around into all kinds of various configurations with results ranging from nothing at all, to dim and erratic blinkers, to blinkers that worked when the brakes werent on, to brake lights that were on all of the time, to a setup that only worked when the key was off. i finally scrapped that setup and tried again based on some information i found on the internet. this time i was closer, but it still didnt work quite right.

finally, i started completely from scratch and bypassed the wiring harness altogether. i spent a lot of time with the multimeter, checking and rechecking wires in all of the various states. i wired up one thing at a time, making sure at each step that the hazards worked, the blinkers worked, the brake switch worked, the blinkers worked with the brakes on, and then repeated the process with the key in the 'on' position. once i had the system all working how it should, i started adding back in the wiring harness. when i was all done, i had it set up to use the unmodified harness, all of the stock switches, and no additional parts (relays, etc). if i knew how to create a proper wiring diagram, i would post it up, but all i have now is some scribbling on the back of a piece of notebook paper. i will at least try to document what wires i connected where in case anybody else runs into this issue in the future.

 

[Horitexan]

test

 

[mattcrandle]

here is how i ended up wiring mine, using the EZ wiring harness and stock turn signal switch, hazard switch, and brake switch. (my cruiser is an early 1972 model, so it is essentially the same as a 1971 for reference):

- from the harness - wire from the flasher (mine was brown, labeled 'Hazard', i believe it was coming from the load side of the flasher) to the Green/Purple wire of the hazard switch : provides the flashing power

- from the harness - 12v constant power (i used my radio circuit) to the Green/Red (NOT the other Green/Red that is actually Green/Orange) of the hazard switch : provides 12v to the system

- from the harness - 12v constant power (mine was Peach-ish, labeled 'Brake Switch Power') to the brake switch : provides power to the brake lights when activated

- from the other side of the brake switch - connect to the Green/White wire of the turn signal switch : passes power to the brake lights when activated

- Green wire from the hazard switch to the Green/Purple wire of the turn signal switch : passes 12v through to the turn signal switch

- Green/Yellow (2 sets) - connect the wires from the hazard switch to the turn signal switch, and then to the actual lights

- Green/Black (2 sets) - connect the wires from the hazard switch to the turn signal switch, and then to the actual lights

on the hazard switch, i did NOT use the Green/White or Green/Orange wires. if you want to use these, you can hook up 12v switched power to the Green/Orange wire and the load side of the flasher (or another flasher - my kit came with two seperate flashers for the turn signals and hazards, the wire i did NOT use blue and labeled 'Turn Signal Flasher') to the Green/White wire. this will allow the turn signals to only work when the key is on, but i had trouble with this setup (my hazard switch is starting to go i think) and actually preferred my turn signals to work with the key off (just like all of the other lights).

also, on the harness, there was a wire (mine was White) labeled as 'Brake Switch'. DO NOT hook up this wire. this passes power to the brake lights when activated, but the stock hazard switch and turn signal switch are bypassed and then your turn signals wont flash when the brakes are on.

although i am sure i am not the first person to run into this, i couldnt find any good resource on MUD or the internet that clearly explained what to do to get this set up to work. i spent a lot of time figuring all of this out, and i hope it helps somebody out in the future.