cmyc2

I,m thinking of changing tail lights over to LED's. What all has to be done to make this change? I have a 64 coupe.

Frankie the Fink

I do that on all my classic cars. You can get the LED tail lights from Bruce (ohiovette) on the forum here along with an electronic signal flasher. Installation is all of 20 minutes if you buy the complete weather-proofed tail light lens with integrated circuit board and not the separate LED bulb.

On a '63 I kept hitting the larger, electronic flasher with my left foot and dis-lodging it...so I made up some short wire 'extensions' with spade connectors to go into the fuse box and allow me to move the flasher up out of the way where I could zip-tie it to a dash support

LEDs are a no brainer and much more visible to those tail-gating jerks jabbering on their cell phones.

RatDog

I bought my LED taillight replacements from Bruce and they are great. Much brighter than the original bulbs. These are a big safety feature in my opinion.

-- Steve

DansYellow66

Will the 1157 replacement LED bulbs fit in our GM bulb sockets and clear? I know that Walmart sells a set of red Pilot LED bulbs for 1157 replacements for about $15 which is pretty inexpensive. I tried them on my Cobra replica and they are very bright as tail lights although the brake and flasher circuit are not as bright as Superbrightled bulbs.

cmyc2

Who is ohiovette and how do I get in touch with him?

L36 rag

read this

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...with-pics.html

Frankie the Fink

its actually ohiovet (I mispelled it above)and he is a forum member so you can just PM him.

ricks327

Bruce (ohiovette) is a great guy too! He answered my questions about LED's for 67 back-up lights and also sent me bulbs for the front parking lights. He didn't think they would be an improvement over incandescent bulbs and was correct.
Rick

DansYellow66

I took a chance and put a set of these $15 LEDs in my 66 yesterday and they work great. So that's the answer.

ohiovet

Check your private messages.
Bruce B

SpartyGW

Those PILOT LED lights got some pretty bad reviews on amazon. I'll be interested if you can update this thread in a month and let us know if they are still working.

Plasticman

I like Bruce's products for my C1.

Fellow forum member Radioflyer has great LEDs for the later "plug in" socket bulbs (I have them on the C5), but the flasher must also be changed (or load resistors added).

Plasticman

DansYellow66

I've put them in my ERA Cobra and my 66 but this time of the year I'm probably not going to know much more in another month. I did put a set of $50 Superbrightleds in my 67 GTX because they would not function properly in my ERA. They are the better 1157 LEDS replacement bulb but at over 3 times as much cost the $15/pr PILOT are an option.

From my own experiences in trying to get the Superbrightleds to function in my ERA (it would take a lot of time to recap) and from various stories I've seen on numerous forums with LED 1157 replacements in general, proper operation is sometimes a hit or miss experience.

The low point of experiences on my ERA was when I tried one of the Pilots in my front turn signal just because it has a screw off lense and I wanted a quick test - plugged it in and turned on the turn signal and all four lights flashed in unison (and it doesn't have emergency flashers). Installed them in the rear and they functioned perfectly.

Gary's '66

I got a set of the red tail light LED assemblies (lens/LED unit) from Zips, part # L-560 which list for $28.95 each. 5 minute plug and play. Installed about 2 years ago and no issues. MUCH brighter than incandescent and look stock until of course they light up.

burtonbl103

what are you guys using for a flasher with the leds.

I seem to have issues with the flasher since i instaleld my leds.

Frankie the Fink

EF-32RL flasher....available most anywhere. I had to make up some leads and reverse the way they normally fit for my '61.

IIRC correctly, I didn't have to do that on my '63 for some reason.

burtonbl103

i think that's the one i have and it has a base that reverses the polarity will chekc in am.

But was still having issues with it flashing real slow.
Thakns

Frankie the Fink

Yeah - a forum member informed me last night that this company that makes the flasher came out with an adapter base that flips the polarity.

Dang - wish I had know that..I spent 1/2 day with two different flashers trying to figure out the deal and had to get an internal circuit diagram of the flasher to come up with my Rube Goldberg rig
So, I now have an adapter on the way

FYI - the old mechanical flashers require resistors somewhere in the lighting circuit to generate the load to activate them. Sometimes, if you just change the rear lights to LEDs; the front bulb filaments still have enough "load" to make the old flasher work; sometimes not.

If you go full LEDs on all four corners your old flasher will almost certainly not work. In the early days of LEDs they came out with load resistors to wire in the lighting harness to provide the "load" to activate the old flashers. These things got hot, consumed electricity equivalent to the old bulbs and were dangerous if installed wrong.

Fortunately, electronic flashers eliminate all that BS and don't require the "load" that the old flashers did.

DansYellow66

So far the stock, old, flashers have worked OK in the 3 cars I put LEDs in the tail lights only. I have not installed LEDs up front on any of them.

I was particularly surprised everything worked in my 67 GTX with all original wiring harness. Most of these things have had a dash fire or half the electrical stuff usually doesn't work on them by now.

Frankie the Fink

I like that year GTX - always thought they epitomized the bad-@ss passenger car-turned-road warrior look; along with the Chevelle SSs...