LED tail / brake / turn signals

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW modifications, sugestions, and ideas, official MWO's and unofficial WWII field mods NO EBAY or COMMERCIAL SALES.
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tamnalan
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LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by tamnalan » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:39 pm

Here's a way to repurpose your rear reflectors into tail lights. The LED assemblies I used are a little spendy but they are REALLY bright. 48 LEDs on each card, designed for 6 volts. I'm going to use them for my camper trailer too.

Parts:
- A short piece of 4" diameter PVC pipe
- A piece of flat plastic (I used a piece of plexiglass)
- PVC glue
- LED assembly (I used assembly LE R48 R in 6 volts from Ron Lambert http://www.lambertenterprises.com/)

I added 4' of cloth covered wiring to the right tail light. I routed the wiring through the existing tail light holes and used the reflector mounting holes so I didn't need to do any tub modifications. I used the trailer socket to make the wiring connections. This works out nicely because the socket had an unused "slot" and it puts the connections in a sheltered and invisible place. My socket now has ground, tail, right brake/turn, and left brake/turn. I used the front blackout light housings for the front turn signals.

Pics:

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Alan W. Johnson
_______________
MB, 201453, "Lt Bob"
MB, 1942, not stock
M-100, Sep 1951
MB-TD, Mar 2012
Ford 91C, 1939


Beers
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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by Beers » Mon Apr 24, 2017 5:39 pm

That's a great idea Alan, and pretty straight forward to build. Thanks for sharing!
1943 MB 213301 DOD 2-22-43

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tamnalan
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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by tamnalan » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:03 pm

Thanks! Kind words are always cheerfully accepted! Here's what they look like on a jeep. The last one shows the tail lights on at sunset. Compare them to the factory light's output.

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Alan W. Johnson
_______________
MB, 201453, "Lt Bob"
MB, 1942, not stock
M-100, Sep 1951
MB-TD, Mar 2012
Ford 91C, 1939

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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by Beers » Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:15 am

Very nice. And you have to do a double take to see the spacer. The LED's make a huge difference, between this and/or
Paul Fitzgerald's LED conversion, maybe we can avoid a few rear-enders from "texting teenagers" updating their Facebook page while they speed along in their parent's SUV :)
1943 MB 213301 DOD 2-22-43

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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by Destructo6 » Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:25 am

Looks good. Tasteful.

What arrangement do you have in the center of the spare? Is that also a light or a reflector?
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tamnalan
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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by tamnalan » Fri Apr 28, 2017 7:23 am

The one in the spare is a single 6V incandescent bulb. It's powered by the trailer socket and I can take the whole thing off with a single wingnut. I added that a couple of years ago after a near miss (somebody locked up their brakes to avoid hitting me... scared the crap out of me...) Now that I have turn signals too, it will blink when I put the right-hand signal on.

Brent Mullins was selling those Korean War-vintage rubber intervehicular cables for cheap a few years ago. I bought several. He may still have them.

Some guys mount a light in the spare tire like I did, but also put their license plate just below it so they can illuminate the plate.

Oh, that's one of Paul's LED conversions in the factory housing in my lights comparison pic. His is excellent! I highly recommend them. It's not as bright as my reflector conversion but the factory light doesn't have room to cram as many LEDS in. His solution is great for folks who want to preserve the OEM look. I was happy with his conversion but I later wanted to add turn signals too.
Alan W. Johnson
_______________
MB, 201453, "Lt Bob"
MB, 1942, not stock
M-100, Sep 1951
MB-TD, Mar 2012
Ford 91C, 1939

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tamnalan
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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by tamnalan » Fri Apr 28, 2017 7:47 am

For those of you with 12 volt jeeps, here's a much cheaper LED opportunity. Thanks to Marty for pointing this out: http://store.ijdmtoy.com/Toyota-Sienna- ... 16.htm#top

They have 21 LEDs per side. I bought a set and tried them with 6 volts. They still illuminate but I wasn't happy with the light output.
Alan W. Johnson
_______________
MB, 201453, "Lt Bob"
MB, 1942, not stock
M-100, Sep 1951
MB-TD, Mar 2012
Ford 91C, 1939

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tamnalan
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Re: LED tail / brake / turn signals

Post by tamnalan » Fri May 05, 2017 6:46 am

A final comment on this mod: I left the factory rear lights harness mostly untouched. I powered the new tail lights from the socket tail light wire (it remains hot in either service or blackout conditions) and repurposed the socket brake wire into a right turn/brake wire. It also remains hot in either service or blackout conditions.

I then added two new wires from the dash to the rear socket: a left turn/brake wire and a ground wire, and removed the socket's short black ground wire (that grounds to the tub). I now control the ground via a switch hidden under the dash. This lets me turn off the new rear lights if I want to use only the factory rear service/blackout lighting which still works as it should.

For the front turn signals, I ran one new wire to power the repurposed left blackout marker light, and used the existing yellow wiring to power the repurposed right blackout marker light. The blackout driving light will require a new power wire (the existing black power wire on my harness was joined with the yellow wire in a single connector at the light switch).

The upshot is that this mod can be done without cutting a single wire on our precious expensive wiring harnesses or drilling any new holes. I used cloth wiring and asphalt loom so the new added wiring will blend in.
Alan W. Johnson
_______________
MB, 201453, "Lt Bob"
MB, 1942, not stock
M-100, Sep 1951
MB-TD, Mar 2012
Ford 91C, 1939


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