LED Changeover - 1970 to 1972 Skylark & GS

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

  1. TrunkMonkey

    TrunkMonkey Well-Known Member

    I used *cough* Ford light sockets that were two wire (hot) with a ground wire and used one of the speed nuts to body for each rear light (1964 Skylark) as I had weak and "flickering" issues prior due to the sockets not grounding well. Since I had to replace them anyway, I decided an extra grounding step, couldn't hurt. Also re-worked any and all sockets and grounding bonding, bumpers to frame, ground straps in several places. Very important, since almost all current for everything is passed through accessory to body/frame and back to negative of battery in order to work. Resistance is your enemy given the limited amount of power supply, and resistance, heat, load all suck it up pretty quickly. LEDs really give a lot of relief to the electrical system.

    All my lights work, are bright and very obvious when I step on the brakes.

    Given the intensity in the past 10 years, the yutes of today, never having grown up looking at dim, washed out lighting and "training" themselves to be aware of the world around them when driving, I am doing everything short of dispensing Chaff and Flares while jinking like a Jack Russell on crack.
     
  2. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    Ok I’ll check the voltage. Good idea. I’m fairly sure it worked with the incandescent
     
  3. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    With incandescent in, headlights on and brakes pressed, I think I found the issue. Far left side. It’s my replacement socket Thinking it’s the spilice at the wire 3990DDBB-0D8C-4FCA-A3B5-0CCDFAA6088F.png
     
  4. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

  5. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    5F73D6EF-5EDE-46F4-9C53-1C4B3D478C66.png 57FC9E66-377E-409C-8DE9-C9817F427B4B.png Respliced and same issues. This is a replacement socket with metal housing that’s in there now.
     
  6. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

  7. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    The replacement above twists in. They all twist in and lock in.
     
  8. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    Mine has 3 wires, a dedicated ground.
     
  9. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    OK, saw your video on facebook. Makes more sense now. Those two wire sockets rely on the ground from the housing. See if you can make a temporary jumper to the ground ring to improve the light. It sure looks like a bad ground problem.
     
    matt68gs400 likes this.
  10. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    Ok I will try that thanks! Tried posting that video here but it wouldn’t accept the file type so I went to Facebook “all buick Muscle” page.
     
  11. matt68gs400

    matt68gs400 Well-Known Member

    EVERYTHING WORKS PREFECT NOW. It was a bad ground. I added a ground from the replacement light housing using a hose clamp and then grounded to the frame. Thanks!!!!

    Works with both incandescent and LED
     
  12. TimR

    TimR Nutcase at large

    I've had LED bulbs in the interior and trunk of my Stage 1 for a while now, much brighter then original bulbs and extra bonus is they do not get nearly as hot as original, so if you are under the dash for a while don't have to worry about burning yourself or melting the plastic. No exterior lights. I have some coming for the rear view mirror map light, not sure they will work but will post results once they arrive (which might be a while)...as mentioned they don't face the proper direction but we'll see how it goes. The one light I will not change is the license plate lamp, I like that one dim :)

    Thanks for posting the list, great info!
     
    Brett Slater likes this.
  13. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    Cool. If you find one that works in the mirror, let us know. I'll get one and update the first post.

    Haha, I was temped to just paint the housing but if they want me, it isn't too hard to find the only red GS in this town.
     
  14. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    Update: One of my front amber bulbs is now only half as bright as the other one. I swapped them from side to side and the dim bulb is dim in both sockets and the bright one is bright in both sockets. I've requested a replacement. I'll update on the results.
     
  15. Cutlass

    Cutlass Platinum Level Contributor

  16. knucklebusted

    knucklebusted Well-Known Member

    I have not tried anything like that. I'm happy with the amber ones I've got. If you can find the same thing on Amazon, it would be simple to try and return if they don't work.

    Update: They replaced the bulb and the new one works as expected. Back to good.
     
  17. Cutlass

    Cutlass Platinum Level Contributor

    Not that easy cause I am living in Germany and I am charged an arm and a leg for shipping.
    I will order those switchbacks and have them send to a friend of mine in US. Will take them with me to Germany on my next business trip in December.
    My original Buick radio is not iluminated. I guess the bulb is broken. Is there a LED-replacement available?
     
    knucklebusted likes this.
  18. TimR

    TimR Nutcase at large

    Just an update, still waiting for these to show. Anything from China takes a long time and our post office has been on strike too so who knows when they will show but I will update once they get here.....
     
  19. TimR

    TimR Nutcase at large

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-44mm-...h=item41f1e95583:g:TxoAAOSw0X1b1Jk8:rk:7:pf:0

    Its been so long the price has changed (tariffs?), but I got 5 for 2.89 US shipped. Pretty hard to beat that. Seems most are about 5.00 for 4-5 now. Out of package they all worked fine, I marked them + and - as they are directional and only turn on one way. pretty sure ALL these bulbs come from the same factory so as long as you get 44mm 12 led ones you'll be good.

    As delivered, put one in the map light and it worked just fine. Not that bright though being 90 degrees off.. So took it out and tried twisting the wires on the ends to angle it, could get to a little less than 45 degrees and tried that, much better but of course never being happy I decided I would try to make one with my own ends. I have to say these things are pretty tough, I unsoldered their ends, made up new ones out of some .032 wire I had here and soldered those back in so the leds's were pointing straight down. I made the - end longer to shift the entire thing towards the middle of the light to clear the opening in the mirror better. Yes the solder job is crappy but it holds, it works and I was trying not to put too much heat into it. Final hurdle, with it flat the thing is pretty wide and won't quite go in small end of slot in mirror....so took it to a file and put a slight angle on the - end....so with some wiggling it goes in and works nice. Couldn't believe after that soldering and filing the thing still worked...!!

    Anyway, overall the light is much brighter. Of course the old yellow one was terrible, this one now throws some decent light, nice clean white, and and of course doesn't get hot at all (I had a map light mirror crack once when i left it on too long, couldn't' take the heat I guess).

    Couple pics attached. The one shows as far as you can bend the ends without tearing them out, then two pics of what I made up to get it to fit. Have pictures of the light on in the car but really doesn't show much, one is whiter than the old yellow bulb..LOL And yeah wow that's some s**t soldering for sure but I'm leaving it alone!! LOL

    led1.JPG

    led2.JPG

    led3.JPG
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
    knucklebusted likes this.
  20. Cutlass

    Cutlass Platinum Level Contributor

    Just returned from my business trip to US and brought back with me the leds, which I ordered from superbright led (shipped to US friend of mine).
    Here is the pile, worth US$270 (already took advantage of 15% thanksgiving sale):
    IMG_3637_low.jpg
    Maybe it is usefull for other users to see the leds (look, shape, color,..).
    So here is what I got:
    Courtesy under dash/ Trunk
    IMG_3662_low.jpg IMG_3663_low.jpg
    License plate
    IMG_3664_low.jpg IMG_3665_low.jpg
    Dashbord (light, highbeam, indicator, oil, watertemp, generator, parking brake)
    Sidemarker front and rear
    IMG_3642_low.jpg IMG_3643_low.jpg
    IMG_3638_low.jpg IMG_3639_low.jpg
    to be continued .....
     
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