LMC Truck LED Tail Lights - How To

[AceX]

I don't think that there's a single person here who will tell me that a modification for better safety, is a foolish one. (If they do, check their BAC for me.)

Replacing starndard incandescent bulbs with LEDs has been going on for quite some time. The change over makes perfect sense. LEDs are superior in every way to standard bulbs.

Up until a few months ago though, you would have had to figure out how to engineer your own LED board/assembly and controller. LMC has teamed up with Technostalgia to bring us an all in one package, and at only $100 for the set, this is a cheap mod that anyone can do in their driveway in an hour...

Starting things off, we have here some basic tools that will be used.

Wire cutters/crimp tool
Dikes
Phillips head screw driver
Torx set and Socket wrench
Heat gun and heat shrink (Not so common, but for $25, get a heat gun...)

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Here we have an LED assembly, new tail light lens with "chrome" trim, and a few crimps to make the job easy. (You can solder the connections that will be made, but I have a personal preference for crimps in this instance)

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Start by removing the 4 torx head screws that hold in the tail light lens. All are pictured here.

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Now remove the 4 Phillips head screws holding in the tail light housing. Remove the bulbs from their sockets and then remove the socets by twisting them and pulling them out the back of the housing.

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The socket we need is for the tail lights (duh?). Make a note of which wires were where just in case something gets screwed up... There are three wires going to the socket: brown, black, and yellow (driver's side) or green (passenger's side)

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Moving onto the LED assembly itself, you need to remove the gromet from the stud that it is mounted to. There are two nuts at the top of the stud which must be removed.

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Now pull the wires back through the gromet and pass them and the stud through the hole where the tail light socket was originally located.

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[AceX]

Make sure that the LED assembly is square int he housing before you secure it.

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Now pass the wires back through the gromet and then reattach the gromet to the stud. Don't forget about the green wire that you removed earlier from the stud. Make sure to reattach it between the two nuts on the stud.

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Now, go ahead and cut the three wires for the original bulb socket, and strip them about .5" and do the same for the three wires on the LED assembly. Now before you crimp them together, make sure that you have your heat shrink in place on the wires. Now crimp (or solder) the wires together like this:

Original -->LED

Brown -------->Black
Black --------->Green
Yellow/Green -->Red

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Now before you reinstall the assembly, make sure that your turn signals, running lights, and brake lights all work. If any of them do not, retrace your steps and see where you went wrong. Once everything is working as it should, reinstall the sockets and their matching bulbs, then the tail light housing.

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A quick test, just for kicks (this is witht he running lights on, not the brake lights or turn signals.

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Reinstall the lens (A new lens is a REALLY good idea)

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[AceX]

Look at the pretty lights...

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Relax...

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--Matt

 

[animal]

Nice write up! Great detail and pic's.

 

[Jaymez]

Great write up!

Did they change the tail housings over the years or did you have to separate the lens and just not show that step? I only ask because my tails on my 87 are one piece units. The reflector buckets are glued to the lenses. That's for both the trimmed and non-trimmed lights that I have.

 

[Manbearpig]

my tails on my 87 are one piece units. The reflector buckets are glued to the lenses. That's for both the trimmed and non-trimmed lights that I have.

I haven't seen any like that

Mine are like his

Great write up! They have some good output

 

[AceX]

Great write up!

Did they change the tail housings over the years or did you have to separate the lens and just not show that step? I only ask because my tails on my 87 are one piece units. The reflector buckets are glued to the lenses. That's for both the trimmed and non-trimmed lights that I have.

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. On every truck I've seen the lens is completely seperate from bucket...

 

[greencountry05]

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. On every truck I've seen the lens is completely seperate from bucket...

Great write up, very step-by-step. And I'm the same way. I've owned two myself and been around three other 80's model bricks and the lenses have been seperate. Anybody else have an idea?

 

[Old77]

I didn't even know this thread existed! I like it

 

[89Suburban]

I didn't even know this thread existed! I like it

Look at the message I dropped on it's profile page, lmao...

 

[Old77]

haha!!! and now it's banned Now maybe we can get the threads cleaned up I hope....

 

[89Suburban]

This is a great write up, see, sometimes good things happen when were spammed, find old lost threads and develop stornger member relationships, hahahaha

 

[Old77]

 

[HotRodPC]

Wow, nice thread. Glad someone bumped it, not so happy it was probably a spammer. You always know when a tech write up was successful when it ends with a beer.

 

[RetroC10Sport]

Gives me an idea for another mod...