Tail light electrical locations

[daking]

I re did my whole MJ rear electrical. Started a few years back, I have nothing of old harness. I got all new sockets and what not. 

 

Any who, on to the question,

 

There are 3 locations on the tail light.

 

TOP

 

Middle

 

Bottom

 

The bottom one is the backup light, nothing special there. 

 

But the other two, TOP and MIDDLE. 

 

You have 4 options, two per socket, 2 sockets.

---------------------

 

the signals that need put into visual - -

brake

Turn/flash

running lights 

and brake W/ Running lights

 

-----------------

 

I'm writing this, and I'm already confused...

 

I got it to work, just fine. But I wonder how the factory MJ tail light works. 

 

Mine works like this :

 

Top = running light, brake (running light ~ 1/2 bulb, brake 100% when running lights on)

Middle = running light, Turn/flasher (running light ~ 1/2 bulb, turn 100%)

 

Like I said, it works. But the braking lights are not that bright (not cause of an electrical issue, just cause it's only 50% of a bulb). Where as, the running lights are strong, as they are in both top and middle. I'm thinking I only need one running (say middle 50%), and brake on both middle and top. 

 

Man, I hope all this makes sense. Basically, can someone check to see what locations on the factory tail light do what? How many brake locations, how many running and turn?

 

Thanks

 

oh, yea, third brake light, recommendations? 

 

 

[dunnc1991]

From what I remember, both bulbs take care of all functions stop/turn/tail.

[shelbyluvv]

Correct

[daking]

Humm, Guess I need to study the electrical diagrams then.

 

I'm trying to figure out how that would be done. 

 

you have 4 feeds, (or 3 feeds, I guess)

 

running lights

brake 

turn/flasher

brake W/ running

 

But only 4 positive wires... 2 wires on each socket. One wire lights the bulb 100%, the other wire lights at 50%.

 

I'll review the electrical manual again..

[shelbyluvv]

Did you swap in a XJ dash harness by chance?

[daking]

yes, I did. the harness if from a 91 XJ. Probably should have said that, I'll bet the XJ and 91 N up harnesses are different then 90 N down  MJ 

 

I cut all the rear wires, and found the tail wires, extended those to the rear, via a custom harness. 

[shelbyluvv]

That's why the wiring is different. You could have just made an adapter from the MJ rear harness to the XJ dash harness. Then just run a wire from the brake light up to (I think) pin p on the column connector. There is a write up in the DIY section about that.

 

Since you have XJ wiring the top bulbs should be tail/brake and the middle will turn signals.