brake light wiring ?

so i just got some new original style brake lights for my cj5. they have two wires coming out of them. one red, one black each. i have the original wiring diagram in my chiltons book. my question is which wire goes to which? black is usually ground, but according to the diagram, neither of the wires go to any gounds. looks like they go to the turn signal switch, lights switch and back of gauge cluster. what goes where, color wise?

 

The mounting studs ground the light unit to the tub. Then the easiest way to connect the wires is to turn on your tail lights, then connect that hot wire to one wire and then the other on the light for the dimmest element. The dim element is tail light and the bright is turn/stop. That;s it.

 

Where did you pick up the tail lights, mine are abused and would like to replace them.

 

These look like the original tail lights on my 71 CJ-5:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grote-Unive...pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

 

still no luck here. any ideas anyone???

achuto: i got them from kaiserwillys.com. they are the oem style just like the originals. not like the plastic trailer lights like alot of guys use.

 

Walt nailed it. What are you having no luck with? The lights ground through the mounting studs from the factory. One wire is for the turn signal and brake lights and the other is for tail/marker lights.

 

i forget to say i am not just plugging in new lights. i am new wiring them all the way to the switches. my jeep had some ugly aftermarket lights. the wiring was all messed up and they didn't work, so i tore all the wiring in the back end out. i am replacing them with new original style reproductions. the new lights have two wires that come out of each. one red, one black. so, i ran the wires to the turn signal wires and the other to the lights on/off switch and got nothing. the only way they come on is to put the black wires to ground and the red wires to power. but that doesn't make sense. then there is no flashing of them for turn signals or brakes ability?

 

If you have power to the lights from the turn signal switch and brake lights and tail lights, I'd suspect your grounds are not good for the lights themselves. If the grounds are not good the circuit could be trying to find it's own ground through another circuit which is why the light only comes on with both the red and black wires connected.

 

the grounds are good. got them working, but with them wired up either way, one light is stuck on full bright? what's that mean?

 

Wired wrong. Check your diagram again..Work one wire at a time, slowly..
You may have the wire from the switch on the "incoming hot " side...