The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Wiring taillights

I knew I needed to keep better notes as I ripped out the old, original wiring so now I'm asking the easy questions for most of you. I have two wires for the turn signals stretched out for each tail light on my 1950 1/2 ton. It is a 6V system. Now what? I know I need the tailight wire also but is it one wire from the front and then from the left tail light do I splice a wire to the right tail light? Also, is there a separate ground wire on each light that needs to be attached? Sorry for the ignorance. It is the E-Z wire harness and it has been up to this point as turn-signals were after market and it doesn't have a picture, just numbers and where they go.
Also, the wires don't have the ends that fit in the light socket so are these to be made? How?

A '50 only had a single taillight and no turnsignals from the factory, so you won't be able to duplicate original as you do this.

The taillights should be a single wire from the headlight switch. The right/left turn/stop should come from the turn signal switch and exactly how they are wired depends on the switch you have.

I'm not quite sure I understand your last question. I would expect to need to splice the wires to the pigtails from your lights. Do you lights not have pigtails (a pair of wires dropping out the back)?

The ground might just be the exterior of the sockets touching the frame or body somewhere.

what do the sockets themselves look like?

If they have 1 wire coming out of them, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that that's what you've got.

If there are two wires coming out of the sockets, pull the bulbs and look in the bottom. If there is just one metal contact in the bottom, then the other wire is a ground. If there are two, you've got a double-poled socket that grounds through the exterior.

Hopefully, this helps.

I'm thinking that maybe this may be a '51. There are two wires and two bulbs in two sockets. Each socket is it's own wire.
Do they sell pigtails to tail lights? I want to replace the original crusty cloth wire coming out the back.
I bought this pickup as a 1950 but have found things as in brakes that are from a 1951. Either it was upgraded or the wrong year altogether. It was a Washington State Forest Service pickup.

So, there are two sockets, each containing one bulb and one crusty nasty wire coming out of the back of each?

This sounds like a standard socket pigtail that any auto parts store SHOULD have. Just take the guts out of the socket and take it in and tell the guy that you need something like that.

If they don't have guts to fit, then just replace the socket inside the light.

~#~#~#~#~

It could be a fifty or a fifty-one. I am finding surprises in my forty-six that aren't right for that model

Fifty years is a LONG time, and who knows what has been done to your truck.

If you want to know for sure what year your truck is, grab the VIN and use the decoder over at American Classic Truck Parts. It is a very useful tool.

If the light fixtures are not stock I'd replace them. In this part of the country rust can be such a huge problem that a complete new socket can be a good idea.

Rusty old sockets will give you grounding problems that can drive you nuts.

You can buy stock look taillights from some of the venders, or a generic set of trailer or replacement lights at most any auto parts store.

Chevs of the 40s is in Vancouver and real close to I-5 (on the east side) somewhere north, like 140th or 150th or maybe 160th? Not cheap, but they probably have new stock type available to carry out the door. (Yeah I once lived in Vancouver.)

Actually Chev of the 40's is 1/2 mile from my house now. Nice to drop by when I need something.

Go cougs,

Since I am spending your money ...how about LED? There is a current post about LED on here somewhere. Someone posted a link to a place that sells LED that might match up to the stock housing.

Just a thought.

(OK...I am blind...the post in in this section near the top)

Well then I've been in your neighborhood.

Just a suggestion, you might want to run a separate ground wire from your frame to your tail light. I had a problem with my signal lights, turned out to be a bad ground. Too much paint on the mouting bracket I guess, but a new ground wire solved the problem.

You can't have too many grounds.

George

Well I have the pigtails, from NAPA as Chev of the 40's didn't have them. LED for my 6 volt syestem is too $$ for me. Do you have a diagram for wiring through the turn signal? I hear what you are saying but need a visual. I just need help with the wiring to and from the blinker-ignition-headlight switch. I have 4 wires coming out of the turn signal so is it a matter of connecting them on trial and error or is there a system to know? Thanks for the ongoing help!

There is a tech tip on turn signals.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/turn_signal.htm

Thanks. I printed it off and will see what happens this weekend.

Four wire turnsignal switch may require a separate bulb for turn and brake. I didn't think about that when you described the two bulbs on each side.

The diagram you downloaded may clarify that. I don't remember exactly how the four wire type works. I think I'd want to replace the four-wire with a seven-wire.

GoCougs - which aftermarket blinker set up is it? The signal stat one?

the tech tip inky05 posted shows the layout for some of the signal stat units...

this one shows the layout for the 900,901 and 910 signal stat switch:

http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/Tech/SignalWiring.html

-W