need some wiring help.

Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by gunner76, Jun 4, 2013.

  1. gunner76

    gunner76 Medium Load Member

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    I'm not very good with wiring issues so this will seem like a stupid question to most, but hear it goes anyway. I bought some lighted mudflap hangers for my truck and wanted to check which wires are which before I start cutting. The factory taillights on the truck are just the basic square plastic housing. The factory harness goes into the left side of the drivers side housing and then there is a harness that goes from the right side of the drivers side housing over to the passenger side housing. I have the following wires:

    1. Blue-I don't know what this one does, I thought maybe it was for a backup light which doesn't exist, but I put the truck in reverse and get no power to it.
    2. Brown-taillights
    3. Green- runs both brake light and right turn signal
    4. Yellow-runs both brake light and left turn signal
    5. White-ground

    The lighted hangers I have just have a Brown, green, and white wire. I would assume that I just need to hook these colored wires to the corresponding wires on the factory harness, but what do I do about the yellow wire that feeds the left turn that doesn't exist on the new hangers? Do I need to eliminate the double feed for the brake lights and just run the wiring the following way:

    Yellow factory wire goes to green wire on left hanger for left turn
    green factory wire goes to green wire on right hanger for right turn
    Brown and white goes to the same colors on each hanger
    Just seal off the blue factory wire and don't use it?

    I would assume with this wiring setup on a three light hanger I will end up with three taillights on each, two turn signals on each, and all three for brakes.
     
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  3. Heavyd

    Heavyd Road Train Member

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    Yep, Blue is normally for reverse.
    Brown - tail
    Green - right (because the word "green" has a "R" in it)
    Yellow - left (because the word "yellow" has "L" in it) ...that is how I remember
    white is ground.

    Your hangers are only tail and turn/brake lights. All you need is three wires for each.
    Factory brown connects to both brown on the hangers.
    Factory Green connects to the right hanger green.
    Factory Yellow connects to the left hanger green.
    Factory white connects to both hanger whites.
     
  4. gunner76

    gunner76 Medium Load Member

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    thanks, Heavyd. I thought that was how it needed to be hooked up, but I wanted to make sure. I hate wiring, I'm ok doing simple repairs as long as all the wires are the same colors, but throw in some different combos and I struggle a bit. I used to just take it somewhere because I didn't want to mess with it, but I'm forcing myself to learn this stuff because labor rates are high and it's stupid to pay someone to do things that really aren't that hard. Plus every driver should know how to do these kinds of things.
     
  5. Freightlinerbob

    Freightlinerbob Road Train Member

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    Do yourself a big favor and.....

    Used uninsulated crimp connectors and double sided shrink tubing. The tubing is the hard kind vs soft shrink tube and it has an adhesive/sealer on the inside.
     
  6. gunner76

    gunner76 Medium Load Member

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    thanks, I already have that stuff on hand(learned the hard way the other sealing methods don't hold up) ready to go.
     
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