LED Changeover - 1970 to 1972 Skylark & GS

Discussion in 'Sparky's corner' started by knucklebusted, Jan 16, 2018.

  1. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    Never hurts to ground the housings.
     
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  2. FLGS400

    FLGS400 Gold Level Contributor

    I know that the 69 front signal light bulbs ground directly to the housings, which use the bumper as the ground. Same with the tail light bulbs.
     
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  3. racenu

    racenu Well-Known Member

    On my cat the ground wire is on the side marker light, There are no grounds on the front signal/ park lights they ground through the housing. The backs have ground wires on both sides as well as A body
     
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  4. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    That’s interesting because the front directional’s work fine with the LEd’s
     
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  5. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    Trying to get a ground clip on the rear 68 taillight housings , anyone else done this ? Almost impossible to access unless I’m missing something
     
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  6. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    You could pull the socket out and test with a ground clip. Newer sockets like 70s had the ground wire in the bundle since all the housings were plastic.
     
  7. FLGS400

    FLGS400 Gold Level Contributor

    Try any part of the housing (like where the lens screws in to it?) or any part of the light socket to where the rear harness grounds to the body, in the trunk. I know that the 69 is very tough to get to the back of the tail light housings. I imagine the 68 is the same.

    Be forewarned that removing the light sockets from the tail light housings is a difficult task. I'm pretty sure that they are different than the 70-72 assemblies. I broke one of my sockets and have to replace it eventually. Like the front signal lights, the bulbs ground to the socket, which grounds to the tail light housing, which grounds to the bumper, which grounds to the chassis (or frame).
     
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  8. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    Rear bumper on 68 is so big hard to reach the sockets
     
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  9. Storm1

    Storm1 Silver Level contributor

    I had to remove my rear quarter extensions to get the housing off my 71
     
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  10. Storm1

    Storm1 Silver Level contributor

    I'm at a loss with my fronts. I took all my LED's out and put the bulbs back in, then one by one I swapped the LED's back in. Everything worked until I got the to fronts. When I put LED's in, no more signals (on that side). Put the 1157 back in front, everything works.

    The new flasher I tried did not have a ground wire, and didn't work on any signals. I had to put the old metal flasher back in.
     
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  11. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    The front directional’s on 68-69’s are well known for being very “ labor intensive “ just to change the bulb . Thankfully those do work.
     
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  12. FLGS400

    FLGS400 Gold Level Contributor

    I originally bought the flashers without the ground wire. Then after reading one of these threads, I decided to return them and get the ones with the ground wire. Grounded both flashers to a screw, in one of the metal support brackets near the fuse box. They worked when I changed them out and after I put the LED bulbs in.
     
  13. Storm1

    Storm1 Silver Level contributor

    Thanks Rich ill give that a shot
     
  14. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    Just to update , I managed to get a few ground wires w/ alligator clips on the housings . No difference; tried various locations with no luck ☹️ If anyone close to Long Island has any thoughts wouldn’t mind hooking up with you and picking your brain for a fresh perspective
     
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  15. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    I feel your pain.

    Oddly enough, my emergency flashers stopped working some time between the GS Nats and today. Was going to show someone my LED bulbs and the flashers were dark. Turn signals work with key on. Swapped flashers and turn signals still work but flashers still do not. I've not dug into it any more at present while I'm working on other projects. I'm going to start at the wiring harness to the column as the blinkers tell me it isn't anything to do with the common wiring.
     
  16. Mike Trom

    Mike Trom Platinum Level Contributor

    Before messing with wires I would put the old bulbs in. Strange that you would have wire issues suddenly after putting in LED's
     
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  17. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    Mine worked for two years until recently.
     
  18. LARRY70GS

    LARRY70GS a.k.a. "THE WIZARD" Staff Member

    Not sure it is even worth it to convert the outside lights to LED. I converted my interior lights to LED. The difference to dash lighting is amazing. I left the indicator lights incandescent as I saw no reason to make them brighter, the contrast is perfect. The sail panel and under dash lighting is much better and brighter. The license plate and trunk lighting is much improved.

    Seems converting the exterior lights is problematic at best. My car looks amazing at night as is. I would like to try converting my headlights at some point, but even that seems much harder than the interior light conversion.
     
  19. Rich Skylark

    Rich Skylark Gold Level Contributor

    Larry, your car looks great inside or outside, in any light !I remember reading somewhere that some 1157 LED replacement bulbs are uni-directional . If I understand that term, it means the bulb was designed for electricity to enter only on one specific side of the bulb . These types of bulbs will not work in all types of sockets no matter what. The bulbs I’ve been using are made byBrightstar. Thinking trying another manufacturer that somebody’s has had success with. Not much to lose. The Brightstar bulbs specs I copied
     

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  20. LARRY70GS

    LARRY70GS a.k.a. "THE WIZARD" Staff Member

    I have to revise my previous statement. The dash bulbs I used do in fact dim. I used a couple in my 98 Riviera and they dim. I guess the dimmer in my GS is showing it’s age.
     
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