I really wanted to have some sort of custom tail lights for my notchie and I could not find many choices.
So I looked around for lights that would fit inside the stock housings.
My left tail light has a star crack in it so it became my test bed.
I found some cool Oblong LED Amber Sequential Arrow Turn Signals and Red Brake Lights.
I tried some cheaper Oblong regular bulb Backup Lights but they did not match well.
The lens was too thick, so I ordered LED White Backup Lights which will be here soon.
In the pictures I put the other Amber Turn Signal Light in the inside position where the LED White Backup Light will go.
I had to grind away the tail light assembly to fit the new lights.
I was able to retain enough of the old housing to still use the mounting bolts that holds the tail lights in.
I then made a cardboard template to mount the tail lights in with three oblong holes.
When it all worked I made a drawing which I sent it to my brother in law who manages a machinist shop.
He cut two metal brackets for me. I tried one and it works perfectly.
I plan to epoxy glue the metal plate to the plastic housing and then paint it flat black.

Let me now if there is any interest in this tail light bracket. I can have more made.

The LED lights are not cheap. Here's what I paid on ebay.
LED Amber Sequential Arrow Turn Signals $79.95 pair (Non-Sequential Amber Turn Signals are cheaper $44.50 pair)
LED Red Tail Lights $39.95 pair
LED White Backup Lights $70.00 pair

Video of the Sequentials:
http://pages.prodigy.net/calboy/maxximaarrow.WMV

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fourpoint9
87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress

[This message has been edited by fourpoint9 (edited 04-17-2005).]

i think it looks pretty good. i am myself going to go with led's in the back, but im gonna do it differently. i will retain the stock red lense part and the chrome part wont be there. instead im going to make a led board to fit behind there and it will sequence like they sell kits for, but all integrated. the outer clear part will be like the hexagon firebird taillights, and the middle part will say pontiac like the gt's. lookin good tho!

EDIT: i cant spell....
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Brandon Edmonds

1996 Taurus SHO (my baby)
1986 Ford EXP (goin bye-bye soon hopefully)
1986 Fiero (to be my street rocket)
1977 yamaha xs750-2D (in pieces right now, doesnt appear that it will be done for summer, unfortunately)

[This message has been edited by Flyguyeddy (edited 04-16-2005).]

Those look nice. I always wanted to do something different with my notchback tails but there aren't many options available. Good to see you made a new one

Next get some "NightShade" to blacken the lenses.

painting the lenses will greatly reduce the light from the LEDs. I would try painting the mounting plate black first, then if it still not enough, consider the lense. I just think with it painted black, the light output might not be that great.

quote Originally posted by Jncomutt: painting the lenses will greatly reduce the light from the LEDs. I would try painting the mounting plate black first, then if it still not enough, consider the lense. I just think with it painted black, the light output might not be that great.

I agree. I did not want to say that I would paint the lens, just the metal bracket.

I think it will all look dark enough with the metal painted flat black and I should not need to tint the lens.

I will post again when I paint the metal brackets and have the backup lights in.

I need to buy a good left side lens. Anyone have one to sell?

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fourpoint9
87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress

[This message has been edited by fourpoint9 (edited 04-18-2005).]

with the candlepower you gained from those LEDs I doubt NightShades will bring th brightness down to less than a stock level.

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John DuRette
Custom 85 "The Eagle has landed" - All four wheels now on the ground; 87 Coupe in the driveway. "Kinda makes you nostalgic for a Members Only jacket"

I like! You just became one step closer (in a good way) to having your ratings bar appear.

Nice work. But I have a question. Are you going to bypass the flasher circuit? It seems that the voltage that's regulated by the flasher is on and off so it might not give the amber LED enough time to illuminate all of the arrows. Does that make sense?

-Rick

the turn signal blinker needs resistance not just current flow - so with the led's it'll just sit on and never get hot enough to click off..

or should anyways.. i've use the blinker for other circuits and it required a rather heavy load resister to function.

Quotes from ebay ads:

"These 12-volt lights have (25) LED's in each light and are Very bright and use about 1/10 the power of standard lights so you can add on 10 times as many lights without overloading your electrical system. They are waterproof and have a five year replacement warranty. Please note that these lights will fit the standard Truck-Lite, Maxxima, Grote or Peterson oblong grommets (grommets and pigtails are included in this auction). "

"These lights can be used as or replace any 6.5" oval turn signal light. They are great for truck and trailer turn and side-turn lights."

My impression is that these are made for truck and trailer lights and should work for a car.

I will be installing a Norm’s Battery relocation kit, then I can try and plug these in and see what happens. I may need some help if they don't just work.

Here’s a link to the ebay ad:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=7956193746&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT

Thanks to everyone for your input.

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fourpoint9
87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress

you can use a hazard flasher.

It will not need the flasher. When I connect the wires to a battery it does the flashing all on it's own.

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fourpoint9
87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress

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fourpoint9
87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress

[This message has been edited by fourpoint9 (edited 04-19-2005).]

Use an electronic flasher, they do not depend on load to work. Should be able to find one at any auto parts store.

spelling

[This message has been edited by Chump (edited 04-19-2005).]

What you're saying is that the LED's you got have a flasher sequencer built in. So you need to provide a constant + positive 12 volts to the signal wire. I hoped by bringing this thread to the top some techies would jump in... I was wondering if an NPN transistor attached to the yellow (grounded through left lamps when switch is thrown to left) and another to the green (through the right circuit)wires on the steering column with a 1K ohm resitor to the trigger input, then a fused 12V to the center leg and the output to the desired LED with a 100K resistor to the ground to put a load on the circuit and protect the transistor. You want to test this since the same connections are seeing the 12V from the flasher... a test meter from the yellow and green wires to ground (rear light circuit) to see that the completed circuit won't be much more than 100K.
So you'd be cutting the wiring and putting this setup in line with those wires. I was hoping to have a webpage that would provide better illustration I suppose you could Google it. I've left out a lot about the transistor itself, other than to tease you with what is really a very simple circuit to mod your wiring. I keep reading over this post and I'm pretty sure this is how it works although it has been many, many years since I took electronics and if I'm wrong (!) please somebody help straighten me out.

<EDIT> let me look at thi a little while before you start hacking... gotta check my brain...will edit later !!!!

[This message has been edited by USFiero (edited 04-22-2005).]

Did you read this article? I bought one, (the adjustable model).
I'll let you know how it works when it gets here. Thanks for the help.

Found a flasher made for LEDs:
http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/tech/05hotronicstech2/

http://www.hotronicsproducts.com/lighting.htm

# PG-3 Handles LED loads up to 5 amps
# Works with all brands of fuse panels, columns & signal switches
# No splicing into wiring with add-on inline controllers or load equalizers
# Never heats up
# Ultra low power consumption
# Direct 552 flasher replacement
# Reliable extra long life solid state design
# Built in speed control adjustment for custom signal effects

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87 notchback 4.9L swap in progress
Custom LED Notchback Tail Lights

How did you separate the turn signal and brake functions? Currently, it's a combination brake/turn function. Did you install a special turn signal switch?

-L

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WebElectric Products

Here's a thought. If you need a 12v constant source for the sequencing turn signals (I understand they have the sequencer built it) to operate. Why not take a small length of wire with a spade connector at each end and jump the terminals at the flasher socket? This effectively takes the flasher out of the circuit and provides a simple 12v self-cancelling circuit with no issues of loading? The flashing circuit is really simple and this would not present any issues with overloading and can be returned to normal if desired. This would be the perfect solution easy quick and simple. Hope this helps. -Jason

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A coward dies a thousand deaths..................A soldier dies but once.

Red 86 SE
Yellow 87 GT
Gold 86 SE (wrecked)
Red 84 2.5 Coupe

If you have the wiring for the GT taillights, the signal wiring should be seperate from the brake lights at the harness connector. What you can do is bypass the flasher under the dash, which would give you constant 12 volts in the signal circuit, then install a flasher unit at the front wiring harness for the front bulb. You'd need 2 flasher units, one for each side, and if you place them right, you'll still have the side marker blink with the signal light. The only drawback you'll have is that the dash indicator won't flash, unless you try to cut into the front part of the circuit near the steering column. The signal wiring in the column feeds front and back seperately, and if you tap into the right spot, you'll flash the dash indicator and the front bulb, but leave constant 12 volts at the rear. Again, you'll need 2 flashers under the dash, one for each side. You'll also need heavy duty flashers that don't depend on resistance to operate.

It should work, and I'd love to see it when it's done.

Mark

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To make it flash right you should splice off the signal wire before it hits the flasher, then you get 12v constant, then add resistace or just get an electronic flasher. This may be completely wrong, it is 330AM im having trouble using proper grammer, but hopefuly someone will confirm or dispell my idea tomorrow

I'm just trying to keep this near the top, I haven't researched this any more.... My suggestion was to use a switching transistor at the taillights (since the switch in the turn signal has seperate out puts for the front and rear signals) but the positive voltage is alternated on and off by the single output of the flasher unit. What I noticed from the Haynes guide is that the switch will join the circuits and that means there will be a constant ground through the front light bulbs when the turn signal switch is engaged. I'd try to figure out how to isolate the ground to trip a positive 12v+ to your lights without feeding back postive voltage to the front lights and cancelling out the function of the flasher. That's why I was thinking switching transistor or maybe a diode/relay arrangement or something....
I noticed the auction pic shows three leads on the wiring pigtail...looks like one is a ground (witht the ring) one is a constant positive (red) so I would guess the black wire is the trigger. Is it a + or - trigger?

[This message has been edited by USFiero (edited 04-24-2005).]

Fourpoint9....great job. I was just thinking of something like this. For the time being, my set up is this.

1. I left the backup lights alone.
2. The next two lights are red and are my stop lights only.
3. The third outside light is yellow and I use it for signal only.

I used LEDs for them all and it looks pretty good. Here is the diagram in case you guys want to do something similar to what I did.

Also, I didn't change my flasher or anything.

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BLADE

'86SE
Engine rblt by Jasper (Turbo or '92 Z28 V8 in 2005)
Hypertech Chip
Low-temp Fan Switch
Low-temp Thermostat
Grand Am rear brakes
215/45-17 front, 235/45-17 rear Falken Ziex ZE-502
Kenwood D-Mask Head Unit
Kenwood 859 5-ch Amp
Pioneer 4x10
Kenwood 4x6 plates
Rockford Fosgate 10" HE-2

[This message has been edited by Blade_69 (edited 04-24-2005).]

When I did my GT conversion I remember cutting one of the wires at the steering column for the turn signal switch to separate the brakes from the turn signals. Then I tapped into the high mount stop light for the brake lights. When I did my LED lights, I returned the lights to the original configuration.

A fix that worked great for me........Tap into the hot side of the wiring that runs to the signal flasher & run the wire to the back and splice it into the LED's. Replace the factory flasher with an electronic version available at any parts store.....these units flasher at a constant rate regardless of whether you have 1 bulb or a dozen plugged into them. This will also leave your front signals & dash indicators flashing as normal.......Good Luck.

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(b) What’s Behind You Is Of Little Consequence
88 GT & 85 SE(/b)

quote Originally posted by Strange Brew: A fix that worked great for me........Tap into the hot side of the wiring that runs to the signal flasher & run the wire to the back and splice it into the LED's......

This won't work. You'll be feeding power to both sides at the same time. This circuit is live when either signal is used.

quote Originally posted by USFiero: I noticed the auction pic shows three leads on the wiring pigtail...looks like one is a ground (with the ring) one is a constant positive (red) so I would guess the black wire is the trigger. Is it a + or - trigger?

It has two flashing modes.
The one wire with the ring is a ground. One of the others causes it to blink the arrows and they go away when the next one flashes. The other causes it to blink the arrows and they stay lit until all five are lit then it starts over.

quote Originally posted by Firefox: This won't work. You'll be feeding power to both sides at the same time. This circuit is live when either signal is used.

What he said. doing that would light all your turn signals when the switch is thrown, and constant not flashing since it would effectivley bypass the flasher.

quote Originally posted by fourpoint9: It has two flashing modes. The one wire with the ring is a ground. One of the others causes it to blink the arrows and they go away when the next one flashes. The other causes it to blink the arrows and they stay lit until all five are lit then it starts over.

EDIT EDIT EDIT!
This post really bugged me for a while, so I hope this final revision will help.... What you need is a PNP transistor for each side (I'm going to suggest an ECG263. It's got to be mounted where it'll have air around it to cool off. With the transistor laying flat on its back and the letters facing you, the left leg (base) needs to have a 10K resistor connected in series to the wire coming off the turn signal wire that was going to the taillight. A constant 12volt + needs to go to the emitter (right hand leg) with a 100K resistor in series and the remaining leg attached to the continuos input of you taillight. Don't ground the metal tab on the transistor since that is the collector too. I have no way to test this other than the research I did for other projects, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't work.

[This message has been edited by USFiero (edited 04-27-2005).]

www.rason.org/Projects/transwit/transwit.htm

FourPoint9...anything else going on with this? I'd like to know if you've developed a kit price yet.

I have put the tail lights on the back burner while I try to make my 4.9 run.

If you want to buy a pair of the brackets, PM me. You can help with R&D!

I am going over to my brother-in-law's tonight for dinner, I will ask him to make another set.

quote Originally posted by fourpoint9: I have put the tail lights on the back burner while I try to make my 4.9 run. If you want to buy a pair of the brackets, PM me. You can help with R&D! I am going over to my brother-in-law's tonight for dinner, I will ask him to make another set.

Any idea as to pricing on a set of brackets ??