Has anyone seen these lights? The GEM docs mention incandescent lights so I figure these are not stock and besides, there was a pigtail made which mated the light connector/wires to the GEM wiring harness and the spade lugs look like they were installed aftermarket.
Definitely NOT stock. LED truck light.
Even had to add the resistor to make it flash. I didnāt think that was needed in the GEN 2 cars with the PSDM. It is even hooked up correctly?
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I have to figure it worked when I got it since itās the first thing I check when I get a vehicle or trailer on the road. George said he checked them and he test drove it at night so I figure these worked.
What happened was the wiring was ziptied once to a doublestick ziptie holder right above the tire on the underside of the fender well. Any flex in the fender well and the tire will rip it off and thatās probably what happened. Streets here in PB suck and there are sections which even rattle this 2008. In the 2002 I will ride on the opposite side of the road through some sections the bumps are so bad.
I think you and Ernie nailed it as Truck/Trailer lights. I started googling for ā24 LED round trailer lightsā and found this which looks like it.
Iāve got one rear tire off the ground and removed so Iām going to try and look at the brakes. Will not be surprised if I find a wad of gum holding parts on in there.
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I have a couple of the rectangle ones on my bench that I think it will look better in that spot.
Now you are going to make me go try to see if the PSDM cares about the LED.
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I just ordered resistors and a pair of the round ones from Amazon. Iām thinking the shop which services UC Berkley GEMs and made this FrankenGEM had a hand at this. With their hacking found so far, I would not surprise me if the resistors were not required.
If youāve got a easy way to test the theory Iād like to leave the resistors off.
BTW, I looked again and there were a number of places double stick tape were placed above and to the side of the tire. There is a freakān recess in the finder at the bottom which would have been perfect to run the wire(sure just a bit longer) where it would have been out of the way of the tire.
Over the top of the tire was just stupid.
Pausing the repair until I get the connector from the new kit and resistors. Then Iāll post pics of the repair/rewiring. Which reminds me, I need to get some of those ziptie attachment pads.
The psdm in my '10 doesnāt care.
New sealed LED tail lights and swapped the bulbs in the front turn signal housings for led.
Btw, if it helps any most (maybe all) of the turn and brake lights on classic gems are either Peterson or Grote brand depending on the model and light. For example my '10 el came with peterson turn signals up front and grote rear oval turn & brake.
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It was not installed correctly. The resistor should have been installed in parallel with the Brake/Turn(red) and ground(white) so that the LED gets full voltage and the timing circuit sees a 6ohm load. Instead, they put it in series which dimmed the LED lights and split the voltage across the resistor and LED lights presenting lower voltage and lower current to the LED lights.
All references to these resistors specifically says not to mount them to plastic because they get very hot and should be mounted to something metal. By splitting the 13V between the LED and resistor the total current would be lower and therefore the resistor wouldnāt get as hot.
I call āhackā on this too. It might work but it would be best to keep the LED brake and turn signal lights at full brightness for safety reasons. Running light portion would be at normal potential/brightness.
I only have one light wired up and I see no fast blinking with or without the resistor on the one LED light which is wired up. So maybe the PSDM does not provide that feature weāre used to in automotive blinker relays/timers. Iām wiring them without resistors.
That is exactly what I saw and why I (sorta) questioned it. I think it was before I knew you were having troubles so I didnāt sink my teeth into it.
The only reason one would use the big resistor is if an old style flasher was being used.
Try running without it. I donāt think the PSDM needs it in there.
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correct, it was installed in series and that didnāt seem right but Iāve never actually dealt with this particular problem and from what I saw on the early models it was recommended to just switch to a solid state blinker timer if using LED lights. On my 2002 I put LED in the rear but left front incandescent but have new LEDs for the front too(never installed). Now I have some resistors to throw on there if I decide to put the front LED turn signals on that one. Appreciate the observation and comment as I might have just followed what was already there.
Hopefully this is sufficiently out of the way of the tire. The side which had the LED adapter wiring ripped out/gone showed lots of debris and dust in the wiring harness spade connectors so they must have been ripped out soon after I got it. Iāve not driven it much but I did drive it in the rain 2 days a couple of weeks ago and that would have done that. Of course nobody on the streets told me my light was out except for @Erniea15.
Original setup with wires running directly over the tire in the wheel well:
Rewired.
If there is any more tire rubbing on the wheel well/splat then I will have to add a 1/2" spacer under the rear fender splat rubber bumpers and drill some new holes in the rear mount location to raise it all up a bit. There is maybe 1/2" before the trunkback support would be hitting the raised splat.