are the 92-96 F150 3rd brake lights interchangeable with the 92-96 Bronco brake lights? I thought they were, but i wwant to make sure. i want to try an LED brake light on my bronco. thanks guys!

 

Yep . I put one off a bronco on my 94

 

just to be clear here, are you saying that a 92-96 F150 came with a led 3rd brake light?

 

They were a federal safety mandate at the end of model year 1991. Every automobile and light truck produced after that has one. The LED setup is an aftermarket option that is relatively recent. Although I've been running LED's in every lamp socket in my Bronco since about 1998.

 

Really Greystreak, how are they working for you? I know that they do not generate heat so do you notice a problem with your lights getting covered with snow in the winter? Would you recommend others to switch? And lastly where did you get them?

 

Well, I've always run LED assemblies that I have personally constructed. There are plenty of LED arrays that are supposed to retrofit in place of standard incandescent lamps in our trucks but the problem is not with a lack of heat. The issue for most of the current aftermarket LED arrays available is that the designers have not taken into consideration the fact that the high intensity LED's used in the arrays do not distribute light in every direction. They produce a very narrow beam of light out the end of the LED. This works well as long as the LED's are facing the direction needed to be visible.

The reason for the drawback is simple. Incandescent lamps used in the original lens and reflector assemblies in our trucks produced light in every direction so most of the light was caught and bounced back through the lens by the reflector. Many or the LED arrays that don't produce this omni-directional light source, struggle to achieve the same kind of light output that their incandescent cousins produced so well.

The solution, well take a look around and look closely at the way the LED's are arranged in the retro-fit arrays. If all the LED's face one direction and you are going to be putting the array into a tail light, signal, or marker light, remember that if there is no light directed towards the reflector, you will end up with this tiny spot of light from the LED's that face the lens but nowhere else.

There are all sorts of LED's and arrays available. My suggestion would be to put your favorite search engine to work using the keywords "automotive LED". When you shop, look for retro-fit arrays that have the LED's set in a radial pattern of some sort so that the reflector can be of some use.

If you take a good look at new cars that use LED's for tail lights and other lighting, you will note that the array has many LED's all pointed through the lens and they are laid out in a flat pattern across the entire lens. Since our light assemblies are not designed this way we must adapt as we can to apply LED technology.

That's a long answer for a simple question but, I have talked with so many folks who made the swap to LED's and were so disappointed by the "lack of light" compared to the old incandescent lamps. The truth is, there is usually MORE light with LESS energy used but the light is not properly directed inside the reflector/lens so the appearance is less light output. So, take some time and research this before you buy. I will have a look around and see if I can put a few links together with some better LED arrays for this type of swap.

By the way, Stagehands Local #6, nice to see a Union brother here.

 

Thanks a lot Greystreak. Its good to know that all LEDs aren't created equally.
I look forward to the links that you will post.
Thanks again .... Brother.

 

The trucks didn't get the third brake light until the 1994 model year.