Hey Folks,
My first post was about this 1954 F-350, 223 w/operating dumpbed, that I bought from a friend and saved it from the scrap yard. For 2 weeks, I worked every night trying to re-fresh the motor. The motor has been re-freshed and I am happy to report that it fires and runs again! I had to purchase a new radiator from MidFifty.com and it is yet to be installed due to some time off and some much needed re-wiring. This is not a restore project as I just want to make it a dependable working truck (wood cutting mainly)! I have a question for you all who know. Will I need to have seperate lights for the turn, tail and brake lights? I have traced the previous owner's re-wire job and found individual wires for the tail/marker lights and the turn lights. I ran a hot wire from the starter silanoid to the brake terminal and found another hot wire at the back of the truck apparently for the brakes. All the wires appear to be there and I am wondering if I will need to have three lights (each side) for each function or can it be wired to just one light assembly?

 

Truck is looking great! Love to see these being put back to good hard work again
That motor looks great refreshed!


As far as the wiring goes, it's my understanding that you need one for the parking lights and one for side of the turn signals/brake lights. That if your brake lights are dim and your parking lights bright, that they need to be switched. My tail lights aren't original, but it's what I have on my '56, and being a '56 it might also be different since that was the first year for tail lights standard and 12v instead of 6v. But I don't think it will be different.

Do you need a total of 6 wires? You know I'd have to check my truck. I think you can run the same wire for the parking lights, but you should have a separate one for each side for the turn signals to work which I want to say is the same wire used for the brake lights. So that should be three wires running to the back of your truck (left side, right side, and parking) and then the parking light should cross over from the other tail light or split or whatever. And you'll need to ground them, but those just go to the frame and don't have to travel back to the front.


Can't say for certain without checking, but that's how I remember mine.

 

Hi Stephen67 thanks for the reply.
I know that I have 3 wires going to the back of the truck that split off to each side (Pass.& Driv.). It appears that I will possibley will need to have 6 lights total. This is not too big of deal to me because I feel the more lights, the more visible it will be on the road. I was just wondering if I chose to go with a one light assembly for all, would/is my truck wiring compatible for such a light assembly?

Thanks
Rob

 

You can get one light for each side with a double filament bulb in each. It will do the tail lights/running lights on the dimmer filament and the blinker and brake lights on the brighter filament.

 

about the only thing i can contribute here is that to do the combo brake/turn signal, you have to have the correct turn signal switch at the steering wheel. to use the same filament for brakes and signals, the brake light wire from the brake system has to run through the signal switch. you def need one wire for brake/turn to each side (total of two) and as i rem, we ran one wire for running (parking?) lights to one side and bridged that wire to the other. so it looks like you do combo lights with three wires if you have the correct turn signal switch. they are about $25 plus ship from most places. nice truck.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
r reed, I am not sure off hand what brand of signal switch I have, but it is the style that bands onto the steering column and has a green light indicator at the end.

 

some (most) of the early add-on signal switches wired directly to separate additional directional lights (front and back). in my case, i replaced the single filament socket in the front running lights to dual filaments: one for directional signal, one for running light. in the back. where i had dual filament brake/running lights, i had to disconnect the brakelight wire(s) and run the brake switched wire to the new style column mounted signal switch. then there were two wires, right dirctional/brake and left directional brake) to go to the back. the running light wire is separate. i think the new signal switches have 7 wires. i think i have this right, it's been a while. i'll see if i can find the wire diagram for the new style signal and post it.

(OOPs) just noticed you have a 54. did it come with signals orig or were they added. if they are competely separate lights, the 5 wire switch works. if you want to rewire them as brake/signal, running lights with a dual filament bulb, you need a 7 wire. here's a typical example and the wiring diagram is included in the pics. as i said, this gives you brake/dir on one filament, the other will do the running lights. you can also do a dual filament on front to get running/turn. when you look at the diagram you'll see that the switched wire from the brake master goes only to the signal switch. don't know if this is what you are looking for, but it may help. dick r.

 

r_reed,
My understanding is that the 54' did not come with turn lightsand were added to the front fenders. I have heard that you had to hand signal your intention upon turning. The next chance I get, I will see how many wires are going to the turn switch.

 

I am pretty sure turn signals were an option on trucks by 54. I think the first year was 53. If you want to wire your truck like original you can get all the pieces of your wire harness reproduction.