'66 Cj5 Tux Resto-mod

On my early '69 the parking lights go out when the headlights come on:


On my 71, they stay on:


I would guess they go off when the headlights come on with your '66.

 

Interesting. I would have made an off the cuff "they stay on" answer. I've never noticed them going off with headlights, even on other older vehicles.

Could this have been a change on CJ's when they added side clearance lights? I don't see your sidelight on in the '71 pic.

 

Thanks. When I went to turn on the lights again this AM, the LH low beam is out, but the high beam lights up. And I only have RH parking light and tail light. So...I need to sort some wiring stuff out still!

 

The side light is there and has been fixed since that picture.

 

I think I have different color wires in my Sparton harness - there’s definitely a pink wire that you can see in my pic above.

 

Since our wire colors don't match, here's the diagram by pad location on the Spartan switch (using your picture):

 

Note: I figured this all out by tracing the circuits because I also had issues with wire colors from online references not matching.

The basic functions are as follows:

1. When the switch is in the neutral position
   • The brake light switch should have conductivity to BOTH the left and right rear lights
   • The Flasher L terminal should not have conductivity to anything
   • Both the left and right front lights should not have conductivity to anything
2. When the turn signal is in the "left turn" position:
   • The turn signal knob moves down and the switch slide moves up.
   • The brake light switch will have conductivity to the right rear light
   • The right front light will not have conductivity to anything
   • The flasher L terminal will have conductivity to BOTH the left front and left rear lights
3. When the turn signal is in the "right turn" position:
   • The turn signal knob moves up and the switch slide moves up.
   • The brake light switch will have conductivity to the left rear light
   • The left front light will not have conductivity to anything
   • The flasher L terminal will have conductivity to BOTH the right front and right rear lights

 

This is fantastic thanks fireball! So the turn signal flasher that I have in the Painless fuse panel only has “X” and “L”…. How do you recommend doing that wiring?

 

The P terminal on a three prong flasher is for a "pilot light". It always flashes if either of the left or right circuits flashes but it is isolated from those circuits.

Unfortunately without the P terminal you can't really get the single pilot light to flash when turning both directions. If you connected it to both the left and right circuits you'd be making a short between the circuits and everything would flash.

Your best bet might be to rig up a pair of small LEDs behind the green window on the Sparton and hook the right LED to the right front light wire and hook the left LED to the left front light wire. You could do that all internal to the Spartan unit and it could be quite slick. Hmmmm... now maybe I want to do that.

Other options are not worrying about the the light in the Spartan and/or adding a pair of indicator lights on the dash somewhere.

 

OK so – some progress. I connected the purple painless wire number 752 to the white wire from the harness, and now I have the right turn signal flashing rapidly, and the left turn signal flashing very slowly, or cutting off both the LH front parking light and tail light. I don’t have the black wire connected to anything….? And there’s no light in the turn signal housing.

 

No, the parking lights go off with headlights on.

 

Well - I tore the switch apart again and disassembled and cleaned to the Best of my abilities, and I have a solid right turn signal, but no left. When I move the arm to the left both left front and rear lights turn off and there’s no noise from the flasher in the fuse panel.

I’m wondering if the copper contacts might be so worn in my Turn Signal that they just don’t work anymore.

 

Solid as in not flashing? I fought with mine forever and remember having a solid light and one not working. Took a lot of trial and error. I’ve got an EZ harness. Here’s what I finally ended up with and it worked:

Turn signal notes:

Blue and yellow - flasher
Red - right front
Green - left front
Gray - left rear
Black - right rear
Gray/black - +positive/ignition ? It came unplugged when I pulled the harness

@Fireball I’m using your grounding method when I put it all back together. Thanks!

 

How are the springs behind the copper contacts?

Regardless, you need to follow some basic troubleshooting steps. Things I would do to narrow in on the problem. (Hopefully you have a multimeter or something to check continuity with):

• Check for continuity on the Spartan switch when it's pushed in the left direction. From my diagram above, you should have continuity from the flasher wire to the left front and left rear lights when the left signal is engaged.
• See if the lights themselves are working. Apply 12v to your light wires under the dash. The bright portion of the left front and left rear lights should light up when powered.
• If they don't light up, go to the ends of the Jeep and try powering them at the connector for the light. This will tell you if the problem is in the harness or at the light.
• If the problem is at the light, check continuity from the light housing to ground. The light needs to have a good ground. Also check the bulbs themselves.
• Note that non-heavy duty flashers will typically flash quickly if only one of the two expected bulbs is working. They will not click if there is an open circuit.

 

The black wire powers the light in the Spartan but your painless harness doesn't have anything to connect it to since it only has a 2-prong flasher. See my previous post about that. '66 Cj5 Tux Resto-mod

 

Cheers for all this. I’ll do some further investigation tomorrow. Really appreciate your insight.

 

there are wires in the painless harness for indicator lights - if I routed both of these to the bulb in the sparton and grounded the bulb can would that work? I think you’re saying I’d need to wire these to separate LEDs right?

The springs inside were all still good and the triangular copper parts seemed OK. There was one Wear Point on the cheese board…will run your continuity tests today before I give up on it

 

Checked with Peter DeBella and he has NOS switches for $375! So yeah really hope I can fix this one cause that’s absurd

 

Yes, if you directly run both wires to the same bulb, you are hooking the left and right circuits together so all the lights will flash. You need separate bulbs for each side.

...or thinking about it, you could isolate the circuits with diodes and use the single bulb. They only allow power to flow one direction so they would allow power to come from one indicator wire and feed the bulb but not back feed to the other indicator wire.

Something like this:

 

I love that idea and I think I will implement it once I can sort out what is going on.

I did your continuity tests, and everything checks out with the right side (which works, and flashes at the right frequency). One out of every five times, the L side will flash a couple times and then it quits and cuts out the tail lights and park lights, and then there is a constant 12 V to the left turn indicator wire (tested this by connecting it to (and grounding) the bulb in the Sparton, which lights up).

I also realized that there is nothing connected to the brown wire from the Sparton harness (you noted as brake pressure switch), I thought it was connected but it is not - how should this get wired to the switch on the Proportioning valve? it came with a black and red pigtail.

I asked Kaiser Willys and they said "black is ground and red is hot" (not that helpful). In the Painless harness there is one wire (#762) that says "brake pressure switch MC <---> Emergency Brake Indicator" which I presume is not used, and then two wires (#717) "Brake switch B+ <---> fuse panel", and (#718) Brake switch <--->Turn signal switch" and I’m not sure how to route any of them.

Should I try:

• #718 White <----> Brown wire in Sparton and then <---> to Black PV contact
• #717 Orange <---> Red PV Contact

This is all starting to give me a headache!