M101 Trailer Lights Question

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cbmontgo

cbmontgo

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A friend of mine has these in his garage and I may buy them for my M101 CDN. Can anyone confirm whether these are for an M101? They look identical to the ones I see in pics on these trailers, but they may be for another type of military vehicle. I figured that one of you restoration gurus might know.

Thanks.
Hummer_Rear_Close_1_.webp
Hummer_Rear_Front_Meas.webp
Hummer_Rear_Front_n_Back.webp
 
cbmontgo said:
That is another question that I have, as these are clearly 24V. I guess I can retrofit 12V lights and some wiring?
Click to expand...

The 24V bulbs can be swapped out with 12V ones.
#1156 for the large bulb
#67 for the small bulb

Here are some pix. An exploded assembly of the composite light and the approx dimensions of the hole centers for the mounting bracket
 
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Also FWIW here are the coded numbers for the wiring if you plan on using a 4 pin civi connector
> brown wire to 21, running/parking lights
> green wire to 22-460, right turn signal
> yellow wire to 22-461, left turn signal
> white wire to good ground on the trailer

If you want to use the black out cat eyes as taillights too just use one of these
http://saturnsurplus.com/electrical/adpt.htm
The cat eyes call be pulled and replaced w/ the either the 1156 or 67. You'd have to measure the distance to see if the taller 1156 would fit in that area.

14ga (color coded blue IIRC) civi bullet connectors will fit into the Mil ones. They seat and will hold OK, but certainly not as firmly as the Mil connectors. I did have crimp connectors temporarily on mine, until I could order the Mil spec ones.
 
mine look like that and have been converted to 12v, but the running lights don't work. I haven't opened them to see why the brakes and turns work, but the running don't. Cool lights.
 
I thought of using those lights. Then I got lazy and bought a light kit and pulled the harness and factory lamps off. And yes those are the stock M101 LIGHTS you have pic'd there.
 
Those are standard military "M Series" composite lamps. They are used on just about every north american military vehicle since the late 60's.
You can put 12v bulbs in them as noted before.
I have new composite lamp units in stock if anyone else needs them for $40 each. I will also install 12v bulbs at no charge if requested.

We also stock replacment trailer wire harnesses and the molded military style intervehicluar cables.

You could setup your trailers with a standard 4, 6 or 7 pin style trailer plug by just connecting up to the original wiring harness in the trailer. If you want to go wild, we sell the military waterproof connector ends.

Go to www.militaryjeep.com for contact info.
 
I did precisely above.

I replaced the harness with a NOS and replaced the old m series lights with NOS since one was cracked. The nice thing about the Mil stuff is it's completely waterproof. The rubber connectors are awesome. On the pigtail I cut off the intervehicluar connection and replaced just the end with a 7pin common connector and wired it up so that even the blackout light come on when braking. I think it turned out very nice.

The only thing I could recommend to to not use the m series lights and use a set of gamma goat lights which don't have the blackouts built in and are smaller.
 
I have the Gamma Goat lights on my 1/4 ton and am very happy with them.

Not sure if the GGs are smaller. Dimensionally I think the lenses are the same diameter (will have to measure to verify).

differences:
M series lenses are only semi-circular w/ blackout lights below
GG lenses are fully rounded.

M series have 4 bulb total (1 L/R, 1 stop, 2 blackouts)
GG have 3 bulbs total (2 upper section, 1 lower section)

The old M series lights are less safe, but are good to use for a resto job on a T3/MBT or M100. I've seen some early year M416s with these on them, not sure if these were standard for the time or not :confused:
 
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Both my 1968 US M101 and 1965 M416 came with the M series lights. The housings were cracked on the M416 so I changed those out to the Gamma Goat lights. Those have metal housings compared to the M series which are plastic. I heard that some of the M series came with metal housings but I've never seen any. The nice thing about the military lights is the light sockets are rubber mounted, taking some of the shock off the bulbs.

The picture of the M series housing above this post are the black out part of the lights solid state and if so will they work on 12 volt since these are 24 volt lights?

John
 
wesintl said:
I did precisely above.

I replaced the harness with a NOS and replaced the old m series lights with NOS since one was cracked. .
Click to expand...

Also, FWIW, I replace the original harness (under the trailer) with the RV style 7 strand wire. Purchased by the foot from a local RV dealer. This gives me 3 extra wires for future electrical upgrades (back up lights, extra jack, trailer battery charger etc). I did use the Mil boots and connectors. This was then wired up to a 7pin JetConnex cord to my tow vehicle.

Regards,
Wally
 
I am hoping to get the lights tomorrow or this weekend, and hopefully I can start to tinker with them as soon as I finish sanding and painting the trailer in the next 1-2 weeks.

I really want to set these up so that the blackout lights work as well. I am heading to Big Bend in a few months, and those would be really cool for night driving in a caravan. I hope to find some LED 12v bulbs I can put in as well.

Thank y'all for the help so far!
 
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