LED Brake Lights

[CBRacerX]

Originally Posted by spoke

I have sidemarker boards in hand now. I think I want to try the wiring on my car before sending them to you. Although the sidemarker and front turnsignal fixtures are adjacent to each other, I'm not sure how to wire the turnsignal wire from one to the other w/o drilling a hole or doing some cutting. I'm really against any permanent mods to the vehicle for lighting.

I'll have to pull a headlight out to look at the wiring again to see how to add a pigtail for the turnsignal power to get it to the sidemarker. With the Nor'easter hitting us now it looks like the 930 isn't coming out of the garage any time soon.

Ok i’m still in

[spoke]

Just a heads up.

Christmas sale on now at Spokeworks.

10% off all products.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you for your support.

Spoke

[spoke]

Finally got around to figuring out how to light up the front sidemarkers as turnsignals. To do this one wire is run from the actual turnsignal bucket to the sidemarker bucket.

To get access to the wires behind the turnsignal, the OEM reflector needs to be pulled out. Not knowing what I was doing I managed to break the bulb socket. The correct way to get behind the reflector is to reach under the bumper and push the wires back into the bucket for more reach. There is also a lot of oxidation from moisture evident on the connectors.





The connectors will need cleaned up and the one connector which broke off is reattached using a nut and bolt. A quick connect piggyback connector will allow the turnsignal wire to the sidemarker to be added without changing/modifying the existing wires.

[spoke]

The extra wire will tap into the turnsignal wire in the turnsignal bucket then run over to the sidemarker bucket where a quick connect connector will be crimped onto the wire. A male QC connector is added to the sidemarker turnsignal wire (red wire).



To feed the wire out of the turnsignal bucket, the feed wires are pushed as far in as possible until the shield clears the protective grommet. Now the extra wire can be fished behind the bumper. It helps to coat the feed wire shield with petroleum jelly or other lubricant.

Once the extra wire is fished behind the bumper, the feed wire shield is pushed back into the protective grommet. The shield must be pushed quite forward into the turnsignal bucket so the reflector and bulb socket can be reconnected.



At the sidemarker bucket, the feed wire shield is pushed in until it clears the protective grommet. From here the extra wire can be fished into the sidemarker bucket. Once the extra wire is inside the bucket, the shield can be pushed back into place.

[spoke]

To reconnect the turnsignal reflector and bulb socket, the 2 QC connectors to the sidemarker have to be disconnected to get behind the reflector. The extra wire is added to the top connector for turnsignal power.



Once the bulb socket is reconnected, the QC connectors to the sidemarker are also reconnected. I needed to use a pair of needle nose pliers to reconnect the sidemarker wires. From here the feed wire shield needs to be pulled back out of the bucket until the reflector seats in its original position.



Crimped on the QC connector in the sidemarker bucket.

[spoke]

Here's a short video showing the passenger side front sidemarker flashing. This mod would have significant improvement for the vehicles in countries which require the turnsignal to be visible from 90 degrees to the side of the car. For these cars, the turnsignal bucket is on the side and sidemarker in the front.

[spoke]

I wired the driver side sidemarker last night. I though it would go smoothly as I've worked out how the disassemble then reassemble the light buckets with the extra wire.

I was wrong. The first thing I noticed was the windshield/headlight washer bottle is nicely tucked into the front fender and impedes any attempt to get behind the bumper to move wires.



After unsuccessfully trying to remove the windshield washer bottle, I determined the only way to get behind the bumper is through the small opening above the foglight with the foglight removed.



Coupled with the restrictive access to the inside of the bumper, the wire from the headlight to the turnsignal bucket had almost no extra play so the reflector and bulb socket could be moved out as to disconnect the wires. Using a pair of needle nose pliers, I was able to remove the wire spade connectors and remove the reflector.

The wire sheath is pushed out so the extra wire can be run with it. After running the wire, the sheath is pulled back into the bucket.



With the extra wire run, the turnsignal socket is rewired. The extra wire goes on the turnsignal wire which is the black/white wire. Needle nose pliers needed again to reconnect since there was not enough play in the sheath wires to get my fingers behind the reflector.



On the sidemarker bucket, the wires to the socket are disconnected so the wire sheath can be pushed out of the bucket to allow feeding the extra wire in.



I couldn't get my hand in place behind the bumper to push the extra wire into the sidemarker bucket so I used a pair of long hemostats to feed the wire.



Extra wire is run to the sidemarker bucket and sheath is pulled back into the bucket.



With QC connectors crimped on, the LED board is reconnected and tested, then put back into place. Anytime these boards are moved, the wires must be routed as to not interfere with the sealing edges.

[spoke]

Has anyone run into this situation where an instrument light socket was used for a front sidemarker light socket?

The larger bulb is a BA9 socket and the smaller one is a dash instrument lighting bulb. On this gentleman's 911, only one of the sockets was the smaller instrument socket. The other side was the correct BA9 socket.

Any chance someone has an extra sidemarker socket they'd like to sell? Don't need the entire sidemarker fixture; just the socket.

[famoroso]

Anyone? This is me and I am in need of a front BA7 bulb socket.

My car has gone full Spoke LED, but for my driver's side front marker light.

Originally Posted by spoke

Has anyone run into this situation where an instrument light socket was used for a front sidemarker light socket?

The larger bulb is a BA9 socket and the smaller one is a dash instrument lighting bulb. On this gentleman's 911, only one of the sockets was the smaller instrument socket. The other side was the correct BA9 socket.

Any chance someone has an extra sidemarker socket they'd like to sell? Don't need the entire sidemarker fixture; just the socket.

[Solamar]

Originally Posted by famoroso

Anyone? This is me and I am in need of a front BA7 bulb socket.

My car has gone full Spoke LED, but for my driver's side front marker light.

Hi Frank,

I believe that is the same socket used in the H4 City Lights. Check out post #10 from Spuggy -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1017700-euro-h4-city-light-socket.html

[spoke]

Originally Posted by famoroso

Anyone? This is me and I am in need of a front BA7 bulb socket.

My car has gone full Spoke LED, but for my driver's side front marker light.

The front sidemarker bulb is a BA9 base which is 9mm in diameter. The socket listed below should be able to be modified to fit in the front sidemarker fixture since the socket is clamped onto the fixture which also provides ground to the socket. The price is right at $1.29 each.

The wires would need to be unsoldered. The ground tab can be cut off since the clamp will provide the ground connection. The center button tab can be bent backwards; wire and solder removed, and 12V spade connected to it.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/empty-bases-sockets/ba9s-bayonet-base-socket-wired/5380/12109/

[spoke]

Here's another OEM LED solution with issues. This is a Honda with 3 LEDs out. There are 15 LEDs on each side. Assumption is there are 5 strings of 3 LEDs in series and one of the strings is out.

Will this pass state vehicle inspection? The running/brake light still lights up but is damaged.

Also what does the owner need to do to fix this?

[spoke]

OK guys, I finally have the front sidemarker-to-turnsignal light kits ready to ship. All I ask is you install these and give feedback on how the install went. I'll send a PM for contact information.

Originally Posted by CBRacerX

Yes! I have your leds in the rear lights on my 1980 and love ‘em. PM me the details.

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

I'm interested.

[CBRacerX]

Originally Posted by spoke

OK guys, I finally have the front sidemarker-to-turnsignal light kits ready to ship. All I ask is you install these and give feedback on how the install went. I'll send a PM for contact information.

PM replied to

[bugstrider]

...

[spoke]

Originally Posted by famoroso

Anyone? This is me and I am in need of a front BA7 bulb socket.

My car has gone full Spoke LED, but for my driver's side front marker light.

Frank,

I got a couple of the BA9 sockets from superbrightleds. They are very basic and by themselves do not fit very well in the sidemarker fixture. The OEM socket has a base and alignment bump and is wider than the basic socket.

I printed a plastic "cap" to mimic the size and shape of the OEM socket. It fits very nicely in the fixture. The only modification needed is to slightly bend in the spade sides as the spade of the new socket is thinner than the OEM.

If you want the new BA9 socket and cap shoot me a PM.

[famoroso]

Originally Posted by spoke

Frank,

I got a couple of the BA9 sockets from superbrightleds. They are very basic and by themselves do not fit very well in the sidemarker fixture. The OEM socket has a base and alignment bump and is wider than the basic socket.

I printed a plastic "cap" to mimic the size and shape of the OEM socket. It fits very nicely in the fixture. The only modification needed is to slightly bend in the spade sides as the spade of the new socket is thinner than the OEM.

If you want the new BA9 socket and cap shoot me a PM.

Thanks for thinking of me! I was able to find a stock bulb socket.

[spoke]

Not yet a 911 product but planning on it. This is for a foglight for the 914 early cars. It will have 8 Cree XP-G3 high power LEDs driven by a boost converter. I am working on a variant for the 911. Gotta see if this works for the 914.

[7783911]

how about developing a fog light for 77 targas...i d be interested in getting some useful light from those units

[spoke]

Originally Posted by 7783911

how about developing a fog light for 77 targas...i d be interested in getting some useful light from those units

Do you have a picture of the foglight fixture? Once I get a working formula for the 914 foglight, I plan to migrate that to the 911 as well. I know the circuit works and I'm interested in trying out the boostpuck converter too. Just need to work out the thermals.