New turn signal/fog light on 69 camaro not working

[69camarokid]

Hi Friends!

So I recently purchased the Illumin8rs LED light replacements for my front turn signals for my 69 Camaro. One side works perfect, and the other... not so much.
Both sides had power before and worked fine when I had just a regular halogen bulb in it.

Currently I have checked the plug in location for the LED light in the front turn signal area and I have power (rough 9.6 volts), but when I plug in my LED light, or even the old halogen bulbs I get nothing! Im very
confused as I can see I have power, so im not sure why the LED/bulbs will not work. I have tested the LED array and the bulbs on the other side and they all work just fine. The working side also has 9.6 volts coming through.



Any thoughts or ideas as to why it is not working? My only other thought is to just replace the entire paring light assembly for the side that is not working.

[65 drop top]

Do you have to use a flasher that’s compatible with led’s?

[69camarokid]

I was given a flasher to work with the LEDs, though I have not installed it. I can look at the one I have installed as I put one in years ago for my rear LED brake lights.

When I first installed the front LED lights, they both worked just fine. After getting back from a drive, one of them was not working.
Here's where it gets weird. I jiggled the working coming from the parking assembly into the engine back and saw the LEDs light up for a few seconds. But... then they went way again. I have checked all the electrical and
have power all the way to where the LED plugs in. The LED alos works when plugged into the other parking light assembly on the other side of the car. So im... very confused.

[NH427]

The flasher would only make the bulbs flash fast from what I remember. Sounding to me like a bad ground. Is it the drivers side or passenger side with the issue? Did you fully mount the light or did you just try it off the car like in the pic?

[Jim Streib]

You do know that the lights will not work properly unless the housing is bolted to the car.

It's also hard to see in the photo's but if you are checking for voltage across the two round pins in the socket, then you are measuring the voltage difference between the turn signal circuit and the parking light circuit.

The housings have two wires going to them. If you take your meter and ground the black lead to the battery negative post and then check for voltage on either wires at the light socket, both should be dead as long as the turn signals are off and the parking lights are off. Now if you turn on the parking lights, then one wire should read around the same voltage as the battery to where if the battery shows 12.5 volts then the parking light wire should show close to this and maybe around 12.0 volts or so. Now the other wire or terminal in the light socket should show 0 volts as this will be for the turn signal and then with the parking lights off and that sides turn signal activated, the interior turn signal indicator should come on and flash and then this wire in the light socket should also pulse from 12.? volts to 0 volts, then pulse back to 12.? volts and then back to 0 volts.
Now if the light socket housing is not bolted to the car and/or not grounded, then inserting a bulb into the housing will not allow it to work properly as it is missing a ground and now if the parking lights are activated, 12v gets sent to the light but then the bulb finds a poor ground through the turn signal circuit.

If you think the ground is missing on the socket, put the bulb in and then with a short section of wire, connect one end of this wire to the battery negative post and then the other stripped end, shove it in between the barrel of the light bulb and the light socket and then if things work, the ground side has an issue.

It's also very critical that the light gets clocked properly in the socket and some sockets and/or bulbs fit poor against each other but look close and one side pin is a different depth than the other and the same with the notches in the socket. Mate the shallow to the shallow and the deep to the deep and then insert the bulb and give it a slight twist to lock it in.

Jim

[69camarokid]

This was such great and helpful advice! Thank you so much! The problem is solved!

So it turns out one of the wires was loose. I took the housing out to better work on the wire. When I fixed the wire, but the housing was no longer installed, I now had no ground.
I was unaware until you mentioned to me that the housing unit needed to be installed to act as a ground.

Thank you for your help and for writing up all the information so clearly. You are a boss!