Is there something special you have to do to wire up LED taillights? I tried one of mine back before ( Long before ) I was ready to install them. I just touched the wires to a battery and it didn't work. Or did I buy a bad light?
Thanks

 

Do you have the one with 50 bulbs in it? Or the one that screws in like a 1157 but has 8 bulbs?

My truck needed a LED specific flasher with a ground wire on it to work with the 50? bulb model. I'd recommend it for anyone running stock taillights on their panel.......whale of a difference!

Michigan Rick

 

Never have heard of a bad LED bulb but I guess there could be. I have bought many for the different motorcycles I've had and you can check them by just touching the wires to the battery. Also bought a bunch of ground effects LED lights for the wifes bike and checked them with a 9 volt transistor battery as I installed them to make sure I had them where I wanted them before wiring them all together. Now if its a turn signal sometimes you have to buy the special flasher as Rick said above. I have read several post about that subject here.
EDIT: After rereading your post are you sure that 1 wire is hot and 1 ground or are both hot and you have a case ground? What all is the light suppose to do? Brake light? tail light? turn signal?

 

I got my lights from ebay [closer to whole sale] is the seller. I needed a led flasher and a little black thing . I don't remember what they called it but it on there site. AND like he said GOOD GROUND.

 

LEDs are polarized...you can't just touch the leads to either the + or - terminals as you can an incandescent bulb. Make sure that you have the polarity correct and try the LED light again. Another consideration when using LED lights is the low current draw...the flasher for the turn signals is designed to operate with the current level drawn by an incandescent bulb, with an LED light in the circuit the current draw is too low to activate the flasher. This used to be a problem but now various vendors offer an electronic "flasher" to replace the old bi-metal reed style unit that came in most all vehicles prior to the models that came from the factory with OEM LEd lighting.

 

I bought the LED lens kit from Mid-fifty, just plugged them into the socket and I was good to go. The are extremely bright.
brian...

 

Thanks everyone.
I will try them again on the truck, now that I have one to put them on. Waiting on brackets and wire loom from mid fifty.

 

Just curious... do they make 6 volt LEDs?

 

The voltage required to activate an LED is very low...take a look at all the LED flashlights on the market today that operate on just a single AA or AAA battery. Those are operating on 1.5 volts. No problem with a 6 volt LED...

 

What he said!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

HOTRODSCLASSICTRUCKPARTS, has the flasher you need because I had the same problem when I went LED and he got me one, Garry

 

Thanks for pointing that out CharlieLed. I ment to say that in my original post and got off on a different tangent..... I'm betting thats the OP problem. Just reversed polarity.

 

The ground for my LED tails are the bolts that attach to the brackets. Have you tried to connect a ground wire to the bolts and the wires out the back to power? If your brackets are the same you may need to take off some powdercoat to get a good connection.

 

A few inputs on your posts:

Very few LED taillights case ground (I suppose there are a few but I've yet to see one in nearly 25 years). The replacement bulbs do because they are wired like the incandescent bulb that they are replacing.

The low amperage draw does affect turn signals (unless you are still running bulbs up front, in which case you probably won't have an issue) but shouldn't affect the light from coming on in a bench test. If you have a TS problem, either an LED flasher (there are lots of different types of these, too, and THEY DO NOT ALL DO THE JOB AS CLAIMED) or dummy loads should solve the problem.

No mention of the manufacturer or instructions or where you got the light - makes a lot of difference. I know that we all want to save a buck but the old adage about getting what you pay for often is valid. There are bad LED's, especially if you bought it used. A cheap LED light hooked up backwards can be permanently fried. Yes, LED's are polarity dependent.

Very few automotive LED's are made for 6 volt. The market isn't large enough to justify. Yes a single LED is a 1.2 volt device but what an array of LED's goes into (like a tiallight) will affect the design for that specific application. So you can't use a 12 volt light on a 6-volt system and have it work right. You could conceivably modify the light for 6 volts but you had best know what you're doing. It's not that straight forward. We carry a 6-to-12 volt converter so that you 6-volt guys can run a 12 volt LED 3rd brake light, for example.

Here at Watson's StreetWorks we've been making LED taillights for a couple of decades, now, and specifically for the older car/truck market - streetrods. You can find us with a quick google. I invite any of you that have questions about LED's to give us a call - no matter whether you are buying or trying to solve an existing question or just curious. We like to help.

 

For all things "light emitting diodes" go to "superbrightleds.com. They have everything you need fir the home, security or automotive/truck. I recently replaced all my interior lights inside my Lincoln Continental with blue leds and my work truck with a white dome light and red leds for the doors. When the doors are open, oncoming traffic sees a bright red light in my door.