Curious if anyone has done a brake light LED conversion (contained unit or bulb only) and if so, what was the experience and what route did you go?

I was troubleshooting a minor issue last night and noted that my taillight casings are brittle and probably due for replacement anyway.

 

Here is an LED unit that will fit in your ‘72.

 

Morning, I've been running leds for the last 2 years with no problems. I just replaced the bulbs with 1157 led equivalent. If I remember correctly they came from watsons street works. They are a lot brighter than the originals and I think they are around 35.00 for the pair.
Dale

 

I Have tried a couple of bulb types, and the problem some have is the spotty light distribution. The best 1157 uniform light distribution are the Holley Retrobright. Get the red for stop lights and amber for front lights.

 

i hae used bulb only on a series of car without any issue. i purchased mine from superbright.com. they have a large and wide selection of options to choose from. i wouldn't use red colored bulbs in the rear to gain maximum brightness but amber in the parking lights is a good option.

 

Thanks all!

When I took off the right lens, half of it came off. So no matter what it looks like I’m at the very least replacing that.

 

I replaced all the external bulbs with LED's except the headlamps. They're brighter and todays younger drivers need all the help they can get.

 

just make sure you get a load resistor for turn signals...

 

I've been running LEB bulbs for a few years, with no issues, except that one failed recently, which meant I needed to buy two as the type I had been using had ben up-dated.

I have red bulbs in the stop/tail lights, which I was advised to do, as it gives a better light. I used "cool white" bulbs in the front side lights, and if I replaced them I'd go with "warm white", which would look closer to a normal bulb. Here in Europe (and the UK) we cannot run yellow side lights or red turn signals, so I had changed the setup for them 35 years ago, with separate front turn signals and the rear turn signals in the reversing lamps (the usual way that they are adapted here). I do not use LED in the turn signals as I couldn't be bothered to get into resistors etc, but an increasingly common "mod" is to adapt the reversing lamps to allow the use of white and yellow "switchback" LED bulbs for turn and reverse lamps.

I had replaced the sealed beam headlights a long time ago to allow using brighter bulbs, (US items are like candles!) and a year or so ago I changed the dip/main bulbs to LEDs. I'm not sure I think it's a great improvement on the hight=er wattage bulbs I had, but of course they draw a lot less current which is good for the old wiring! They did take quite a bit of time to get aligned correctly, not a "home" job, but thankfully a friend has a workshop and a beam aimer.

The irony is that I rarely use the car after dark now, there is way too much wildlife around after dark here in "rural France"!