Folks! I've got an idea.........

[Crazy_B]

On my truck I took camper shell lights and put behind the front and rear reflectors.(Which look pretty good by the way). I've thought about this a lot, and I wonder. First of all on my font ones I run the wire to power them to the instrument panel and put a 5 amp fuse in box. Now, if I run a wire from the front marker light to the parking light in front, then it would provide power to the parking light when the headlights are on. Also it wouldn't illuminate the headlights when the parking lights are on. But when you turn the parking lights on, they would be getting power from the primary wire on them and the wire coming from the sidemarker lights. The question I have is would that send too much power to the parking lights, sidemarkers, and the instrument panel, and mess something up? Other than that I don't see anything wrong with the idea. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[bluef250]

Great idea. Show us some pictures of the illuminated markers. Have the lenses on the markers withstood the additional heat? This is the same idea Ford began in 1970 because of safety. The lights Ford installed look well, so, so, in my opinion. The '68 and '69 Camper Special had a special light in the front on the side along with the marker.


What circuit were the camper lights on?


From what you said, you now want to power the front and rear reflector lights from the instrument panel circuit. Then, you would run wires from the front reflector lights to the parking lights. Any time the instrument panel is lit the front parking lights and the front and rear reflector lights would be lit. You would add six more lights to the instrument circuit and change the fuse size from 2 to 5 amps. The headlight switch would see an additional 4 lights in the intermediate position and 6 lights in the full out position.


You may want to shed some load off the switch by installing relays on the headlights. The switch runs the relay (less than one amp) instead of the 5 to 10 amps of the headlights.


The front parking lights come off a separate connection on the headlight switch which is hot only in the middle position. Would you disconnect the parking lights from this connection?


The instrument panel is on a rheostat (the curly wire) which turns the intensity of instrument lights up or down. I assume that you would not want the intensity of the exterior lights to vary. Therefore, you would need to tap into the instrument circuit before the rheostat. That may be difficult as the connection would have to be internal to the switch or added before the rheostat connection.


Another option would be to tie the front parking and (new) marker lights to the rear running lights, wire 285. If you don’t tow anything this circuit could probably take the 4 to 6 additional lights - no more than a trailer. Again, if you felt that was to much load you could run the marker, parking, and running lights off a relay.

[FoMoCo]

Fine, attach another wire from the high beam signal to another relay. Now we know why there's so many wires and relay boxes on newer vehicles.

[68F250]

Just thinking things out.

bluef250, what if you take a jumper wire from 285 to 11? That should light the front parkers all the time. I don't think there will be a backfeed problem in the switch. It's kinda what Ford did but they pulled 11 from the switch (renamed it 984) and tied it to 285. Our year trucks all take the same headlight switch, but starting in '70 they don't use the connection for the old 11.

Or better yet, just cut 11 from the switch and tie it to 285?

[bluef250]

Jumping 11 to 285 on the light switch would work. How would you tie 11 to 285 if you cut 11? The taps that I have seen tend to work loose with age causing problems. I like hard connections and don't like to cut any stock wires if it can be helped - the option of last resort. You could make a bridge with one female and two males. If you can remove the female end of 285 from the switch connector and install the bridge female end in the headlight connector then you connect 11 and 285 to the bridge. I think the switch would handle the additional load and no backfeed problems. I did not know that Ford had stopped using 11, but it makes sense. I wonder why Ford made the parking light on just in the intermediate switch position?

[BCOOLEY]

I actually made my side hood reflectors on my 70 light up! I peeled the aluminum off of the back of the lens, I then used the rear marker light buckets from a 1986 crown victoria(they fit snug inside the 70 side marker) then cut a small hole in the hood just big enough to fit the bucket in and wire it in with your parking lights! It looks cool and people always wanted to know how I did it! I am about to do it again on my buddies truck! I plan to take detailed pics because it looks factory and it adds a good clean custom look to the truck! I will post pic when I am done!

[68F250]

I wonder why Ford made the parking light on just in the intermediate switch position?

All the US auto manufacturers did. I forget but I think it was some old Federal regulation.

About cutting stock wires, yeah I feel the same way but it doesn't bother others so that's why I mentioned it in the end.

For me, I'd tie the two wires together with a jumper. Take a wire stripper and strip a segment of insulation off of 11 and 285 leaving the wires intact. Wrap the jumper wire a couple turns around the stripped segments like a Tee. Fold the wires over and solder the Tee connections. Wrap electrical tape around folded-over Tee connections.

[Crazy_B]

No, it don't put to much heat on the reflecters. They run off of the same bulbs as our instrument panels do. But if you do it then be careful when you take the metal backing off of the front reflectors. I split the front right in the middle so now it is a two piece. It looks cool though, and it looks stock.

[bluef250]

Crazy_B did you light just the front, or both the front and rear side markers?

[Crazy_B]

Front and Back