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Wiring help needed - HELP!

Discussion in 'Early CJ5 and CJ6 Tech' started by TigerShark, Jun 26, 2006.

  1. Jun 26, 2006
    TigerShark

    TigerShark Sponsor

    St. Louis, MO
    Joined:
    May 27, 2004
    Messages:
    333
    Has anyone ever wired a Sparton turn signal using the Painless wiring kit? This thing is driving me crazy! I need to know what wires from the kit go to which wires on the signal. I did a search last night and thought I had the information that I needed but none of it's working. The instructions are worthless. There are seven wires coming from the turn signal, black, yellow, blue, orange, and brown, and two wires going to the old flasher can. I can get the tail lights to work on a couple of different combinations, but when the signal lever is moved to either position, one of the lights always goes out or the front parking lights will come on. They never flash. I have two identical turn signals and they both act exactly the same.

    Thanks,

    Jim
     
  2. Jun 26, 2006
    Glenn

    Glenn Kinda grumpy old man Staff Member

    Apopka, Fl
    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2002
    Messages:
    12,367
    Tail lights don't go through the turn signal switch. It shouldn't affect them at all. Do you know for a fact the flasher is good? When I did my wagon I was going nuts till I discovered the flasher I thought was good wasn't after all. I ended up buying 2 different ones before I got one that worked. I didn't use a kit, just replaced some of the wires from scratch. Don't forget that one of those five colored wires is the brake light hot wire into the switch. I don't remember off hand which is which. The other four go to the four corners of the vehicle.
     
  3. Jun 26, 2006
    jayhawkclint

    jayhawkclint ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

    Oklahoma City, USA
    Joined:
    May 18, 2006
    Messages:
    2,622
    I just put a Painless kit into my '70 CJ5. My Sparton switch was already hacked out and mutilated by previous owner, so I went and bought a new die cast switch from NAPA, PN 901, which had probably equally undecipherable instructions as to what you're dealing with. Worthless. Here is how I sorted them out. You will need a test light:

    First, the tail lights run off of your headlight switch. On your Painless kit, run the red wire marked "HLS Feed" into the back of your headlight switch. The green wire marked "Park Side Lamp" will come out of that switch and go to the four corners.

    Next, the two wires you mentioned separate from the five color coded ones are your flashers. One is for turn signals and one is for hazards. Think of them as coming from the can going to the turn signal switch, not the other way around. Sounds to me from your description that they are working, but you might want to check the wires individually with a test light. After you check them, wire them into the switch.

    If your switch has hazards, turn on the hazards. Take your test light and probe the color coded wires. If your hazard switch is working, four of these will flash. These will be going to the four corners of your vehicle, so pull those aside from the other wire, which is your brake light. If you don't have hazards, activate your turn signal switch in either direction. Two of these wires should be flashing at one time. Move the switch in the other direction to find the other two.

    The brake light wire comes in from your brake switch. On the painless kit this is a white one marked "Stop Sw". This should work with the ignition off, so verify that you have a constant 12vdc with the key in the off position and the brake pedal depressed. If not, you need to do some crawling around under the vehicle. Otherwise, connect it to the wire you pulled aside that wasn't flashing.

    Now with the brake pedal depressed, two out of the four wires that were flashing should have a constant 12vdc coming from that "Stop Sw" wire. These go to the back of the vehicle; pull them aside from the other two remaining. Let off the brake pedal. Activate your turn signal switch to figure out which of these is left or right, then wire them into the Painless wire marked "Drv TS/Stop" and "P TS/STop", respectively. Repeat for the last two wires that go to the front.

    PM me if you need additional help. I still have a Sparton harness marked "MODEL SCR -3R" with the same color codes you describe, and although it would take me a little while, if need be, I could probe around on it and get you a definite color code diagram. I also have the Painless diagrams, if you need them. If you figure it out, please post the answer back here for the search engine.
     
  4. Jun 26, 2006
    TigerShark

    TigerShark Sponsor

    St. Louis, MO
    Joined:
    May 27, 2004
    Messages:
    333
    I don't have a hazard switch unfortuately. I assumed that the two wires that lead to the flasher can will need to go somewhere since the fuse block now has the flashers. Each of the lights have two wires, one for the dim side and one for the bright side of the bulb. I have the side markers spliced to the dim side wires and these are wired to the headlight switch. The side markers light when the headlight switch is on (both headlights and park lights position), but the tail lights and blinkers do not. If I swap the wires to the bright side of the bulb, the bulbs light. Certain combinations of the turn signal wires will get the tail lights and blinkers to come on, tail lights always bright and I can get one blinker to light dim.

    Jayhawkclint, I'll PM you to see if your instructions are more up to date than mine.

    Thanks,

    Jim
     
  5. Jun 26, 2006
    jayhawkclint

    jayhawkclint ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

    Oklahoma City, USA
    Joined:
    May 18, 2006
    Messages:
    2,622
    Before you spend too much time troubleshooting, double check the ground going to the tail lights. Maybe the problem is with intermittent chassis ground instead of a color coding mix up. To check, simply run an extra piece of wire temporarily from the NEG battery terminal back to the tail lights. Mine had two studs that served as a ground for the bulb socket. Just attach the NEG wire to one of those studs. If that doesn't fix it, I would start checking those bulb sockets.

    I have had that problem enough times with other older vehicles in the past that when I did the Painless kit I just permanently added a black ground wire to any light that was grounded via chassis (i.e. screwed into the body).

    Just to re-affirm: Your turn signal switch should have nothing to do with your park/side/tail lamps. If it is causing your lights to intermittently work/not work, then you've got something crossed. I didn't realize from your first post that you are using a new fuse block. If it is the standard GM style block with the plug-in hazard/turn signal flasher combo, then you can discard that flasher can. Just run both the purple and brown HAZARD/TS FLASHER wires from the painless kit up to your Sparton switch for future use if you upgrade to the 901, but for now only wire up the TS FLASHER.
     
  6. Jun 22, 2012
    curtcanada

    curtcanada L, L, and the POH!

    Western Slope, CO
    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2008
    Messages:
    372
    Need this on my subscription...thanks!
     
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