Question on taillights/brakelights

[steveplym]

This has probably been discussed before, but on my P-15 the taillights on the rt and left side of the trunk lid do not light with the brake lights.

Only light that lights up is center light on trunk lid.

After looking at the wiring diagram that is the way it was originally right?

I was wanting to change this. How would I do that? Could I just run wires from the brake light switch to each taillight socket?

Wondering if anyone has done this. Thanks.

[John Mulders]

You need to change light armature to allow double lights.

Only one wire will make the light work when you hit the breaks but that would no be any different than the normal taillight so at night noone would see that.... the brake light needs to be brighter.

There are now led units for sale. They seem very nice on pictures.

Someone will probably give a link for that.

Changing the lights to double function would not be too difficult.

John

[47heaven]

Steve, my tail lights and brake light all go on the same time...and they are very bright when the brake is applied (if you are running 12 volt). Stick with the original lights, if you can. Leave the LED ones for the hot rods, unless you are rodding yours out.

[steveplym]

Steve' date=' my tail lights and brake light all go on the same time...and they are very bright when the brake is applied (if you are running 12 volt). Stick with the original lights, if you can. Leave the LED ones for the hot rods, unless you are rodding yours out.[/quote']

I'm actually still running the 6 volt system. I don't have any interest in going to LED's. I would like to have all the rear light's on when the brakes are applied.

I assume I would need to check my turn signal switch for the additional wires for the brake lights and wire those to a dual filament socket/bulb in the taillights?

Are the 6v bulbs readily available?

[greg g]

If you have signal lamps, you would have to rewire the signal circuit if you want to run the brake lamps through them also. You do have a good start to running three brake lamps as if you have signals, you have dual filimant lamps in the fender lights. I have rewired mine to three brake lamps and run accessory signals, leaving the signal wiring alone. I got some signal stalks from a motorcycle and mounted them on fabed brackets mounted to the bumper mounts. As to the wiring, you can simply tap the brake lamp connection in the trunk and wire them into the bright filaments on the fender mounts. Then I ran the wires that were for the signals to the auxiliary lamps. I am running 6 V also. The stock configuration was center stop lamp only till 1950 I believe, and the side lights were running lamps only. Most signal lamps till 48 or so were dealer or owner installed after market items.

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[Norm's Coupe]

Steve,

You can run a jumper wire to the tail lights to make those act as stop lights and tail lights. You may or may not have to change light sockets to accept the double filament bulbs though. Once you have all three acting as top lights, you can then hook it up using the wires in the trunk only to make the two tail lights also work as a turn signal without the center light flashing. That's accomplished by moving the brake light wire only in the trunk. I have mine hooked up that way. All three lights come on when the brake is applied. If I turn on a signal, only the one original light on that side comes on. I also converted my backup lights to 6 volt LED stop and turn signals in the back. That gives me two lights for signals on each side and 5 stop lights. The LED back up lights do not come on with the tail lights only. All of these modifications were done by using only the existing wires in the trunk. Did not modify any wiring in the switch itself, or under the hood.

[Young Ed]

What I've been trying to figure out is can you have 3 brake lights with the factory turn signals?

[DonaldSmith]

The standard wiring to the trunk has one wire for the center brake light and separate wires for each of the bright filaments in the tail lights. Green for left, and brown for right. Red for stop. The standard setup was center light only for stop, and the tail lights for turn, With the optional turn signal switch.l

You can't use the tail light bright filaments for both stop and turn signal with the factory turn signal switch. You would need something to interrupt the brake circuit for the filament that is signaling a turn.

The newer turn signal switches have enough wires to control the center light and corner lights separately.

I build a relay assembly that did the trick, except that the relays were not rated strong enough for the amperage and it fried.

So I squeezed three halogen bulbs in each tail light. One low wattange for the running lignt, and two high wattage, one for stop and one for turn. It works.

As mentioned above, some guys mount separate turn signal lights.

[DonaldSmith]

spelling glitch

[Lou Earle]

1- Do not believe P 15's had factory turn signals did they?

2What I did - I left the taillights alone. However on the center brake light I put in a double filament socket- used the old socket just installed a double filament bottom. Then wired the 2 pigtails together and to the brake light wire. Installed dual filament bulb- now my brake light really stands out when on. I thought about running brake light to taillights but if you think about it a bit - A light coming on brightly dead center on your trunk is a very good system- dead center I following drivers line of sight.

So after seeing the difference of doubling the canter brake light I did nothing more

Lou

ps the conversin coat about 3 bucks- 1 for the pigtail and 2 for the bulb

[Norm's Coupe]

What I've been trying to figure out is can you have 3 brake lights with the factory turn signals?

Ed,

Give me a couple of days and I'll tell you. Actually, my son was helping me hook up mine. We did it all in the trunk, but I forgot the actual wiring hookups to do it. We did have to experiment that day to make it work. At first, the center brake light would also flash when you hit either signal. We finally ran a separate wire to change that. I believe we soldered a new wire from the brake light to the light sockets on the brake light side of the socket to accomplish it. Again, have to verify that with my son. I already had sockets that used the double filaments in the tail lights so didn't have to change those. Hopefully he remembers, we did that way back in 95 or 96.

By the way, I did post on the forum how to do it several years ago, so it's buried in the archives someplace. Plus, I believe I sent it to Jim and he published it in one of the first years P15 Drivers if you have old copies of that.

[Young Ed]

Lou P15s had optional turn signals. From what I've seen they were pretty rare. The parts book mentions them in the accesory section but there isn't even a picture of them. Also it has been my findings that the coupes have the center brake light mounted at such an angle that it is very hard to see in the daylight.

Norm thanks for looking into it. If you can't remember I'll have to start digging through the old forum. Might be a good reason to finally buy the DVD of the old ones.

[steveplym]

Steve' date='

You can run a jumper wire to the tail lights to make those act as stop lights and tail lights. You may or may not have to change light sockets to accept the double filament bulbs though. Once you have all three acting as top lights, you can then hook it up using the wires in the trunk only to make the two tail lights also work as a turn signal without the center light flashing. That's accomplished by moving the brake light wire only in the trunk. I have mine hooked up that way. All three lights come on when the brake is applied. If I turn on a signal, only the one original light on that side comes on. I also converted my backup lights to 6 volt LED stop and turn signals in the back. That gives me two lights for signals on each side and 5 stop lights. The LED back up lights do not come on with the tail lights only. All of these modifications were done by using only the existing wires in the trunk. Did not modify any wiring in the switch itself, or under the hood.[/quote']

Norm,

I've got double filament bulbs in the tail lights, but how could I run a jumper from the brake lights to the bright side of the tail lamp bulbs and keep them from staying continously "on" when the signal lamp is on and the brake lamp at the same time. Since the power would come from the brake light when it is on it would make the turn light stay on right?

Just wondering how you did it. I had the same thought, but ran into this dilemma.

Thanks for the insight.

[greg g]

That is the circuitry that the 7 wire signal switch addresses. The Taillight king website has schematics for both the 6 wire and seven wire setups.

[Norm's Coupe]

That is the circuitry that the 7 wire signal switch addresses. The Taillight king website has schematics for both the 6 wire and seven wire setups.

Greg, that may answer the question. I have a modern 7 wire signal switch and it also has the emergency switch for all the lights to flash.

[BobT-47P15]

Borrowed this from Don C's album.....I have the same one and followed it to wire mine. Have double filament bulbs in the two rear fender lights. They now light up for brakes along with the middle light. And also are turn signals. Right now, on the front, I still only have single filament bulbs in the parking lights, so they only work as turn signals for now. How often do you really use the parking lights???

[steveplym]

Little follow up on this.

I have an aftermarket turn signal switch on my '47. It appears that it was installed in the 60's due to the appearing age of the switch. I traced the wiring coming from the switch on the column. Figured it had to be a 7 wire switch like the Foxton switch. I had pretty much figured I would have to buy another switch to achieve my desired result.

Then I got under the dash and found a wire wrapped around all the other wires coming from the turn signal switch. I was thinking this has to be the wire that is supposed to connect to the stop lamp switch. I checked this wire for voltage when ign and signal lights were on. None evident. So I hooked up power this wire. Both taillamps lit up on the bright side of the double filament. Proved that this is the wire that should be hooked up to the stop lamp.

I located the stop lamp switch and determined it was hooked up directly to the stop lamp in the trunk. I disconnected it from the switch and spliced a wire running from the stop lamp wire in the turn signal switch and the trunk stop lamp wire together into a male connector. Connected it to the stop lamp and all 3 lamps light in the rear with the brakes applied. All the signal lights work as well with brakes applied thanks to hooking them up thru the turn signal switch.

Took me 2 hours this evening to figure this out and about $2 worth of connectors/wires. This will really help letting other drivers who may follow too close that I am stopping. Gives me some peace of mind as well.