Turn signal or brake light, not both

[MikeC]

Electrical gremlins are chasing me. I've tried the "search" with no luck.

I have a 289 FIA built in '93 that I recently purchased with the single bulb rectangular tail lights. All lights work fine except the rear turn signal, either side, when the brakes are applied. When the turn signal is flashing and I hit the brakes the turn signal bulb flash is over ridden and the rear brake lights are on constant for both sides. The front bulb continues flashing without interruption. When I release the brakes, the rear turn signal resumes flashing. Hope this makes sense.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[RJacobsen]

Mike, your car should have a tail light converter wired into the harness. This is the same converter that you would use to wire a trailer to a tow rig with separate turn and brake bulbs. The Lucas turn signal switch in your car was made to work with separate brake and turn bulbs so you need the converter with the tail lights that you have. Sounds like the converter isn't doing its job

[MikeC]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. This sounds a good possibility and I will track that down for the near term. Looks like your chassis number and mine make us distant cousins.

I can't believe this car has had this problem long, although it took me a while to notice since the fronts continued flashing. The electrical wiring has caused me the most issues. The wiring was not neatly done so tracing the circuits is a bit of a challenge. I have to reset my thinking since everything is relatively simple on these cars, fortunately.

I am considering modifying the tail lights for two bulbs and dedicate one to braking night time tail light and have a separate one for the turn signal. My thought is that anything to improve the visibility of the brake light would be a good thing. Someone has probably already done this. Anyone have any thoughts?

Mike

[JeepSnake]

Mike,

The best upgrade I can think of for our 289 taillights is discussed in the following thread. I continue to be very happy with the improvement it yielded on my car.

http://www.uniquecobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7540&highlight=LED

[mkassab]

and a 3rd brake light. Several of us have it.... here's a link to see it http://www.uniquecobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8226 See 3rd brake light thread
Mark

[MikeC]

Thanks all for the LED suggestion. As soon as I get the rear turn signals working properly I'll give the LED conversion a try.

Appreciate your help.

Mike

[RJacobsen]

Looks like your chassis number and mine make us distant cousins.

The electrical wiring has caused me the most issues. The wiring was not neatly done so tracing the circuits is a bit of a challenge. I have to reset my thinking since everything is relatively simple on these cars, fortunately.



Mike

I noticed the close chassis number too.

The wiring harness from Unique had plenty of extra wire that sometimes just gets stuffed behind the dash depending on the builder. It is color coded and numbered and, if you have the wiring manual, not to difficult to understand.
If you need help with wire colors or numbers let me know.

[MikeC]

Appreciate the offer on the wiring. If I get stumped I'll get in touch. Unfortunately I don't have the wiring manual. Called Alan to see if I could get one and he said he would check to see if he could find one to send but nothing so far.

I had quite a bit of success in tracing the circuits and have consolidated a lot of the wiring making more efficient runs. So far I have removed about 30 ft. of excess wiring, replaced questionable wire with good stuff and have redone 25 or so connections. Feeling better about the wire runs and layout. My initial concern was potential shorts and the car burning to the ground. I don't worry about that now.

Mechanically the car is very good, so no worries there. I am actually enjoying making the car right, for me, and fabricating bits and pieces.

Mike

[Slither]

I posted the info in the other thread...

http://www.uniquecobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7540&highlight=LED