City Light Wiring?

[Farintosh]

Hey all!

I just got some euro smilies in for my 87' vert and with the help of past threads wired them up without a problem until it came to the city lights. I see most people go through the sidemarker. Is there a way to keep the signaling aspect of the side marker going? Ideally I'd love to have city lights and side turn signals working.
This may be a dumb question but I don't want to blow a fuse or anything

Thanks for the help!

RESOLVED! Thanks everyone!

[nyChris]

Splice the city light wires into the ones for the turn signal. There are a few ways to accomplish this. The quick, and easy way would involve a quick splice.

You would do something like this:


The red wire running off to the bottom right would going to your city lights.

Other options would involve soldering the wires together.

[Farintosh]

Thanks for the quick reply Chris!

Could I splice the ground in as well? So it would be something like this?
.........................=====City Light.....................................
Ground\............//.................................................. .........
...........====/splice/=======Side marker............................
...Light/.................................................. ........................

Thanks again!

[nyChris]

I'm not sure I'm following your diagram, but let me explain further.

The city light will have two wires (power and ground). The side marker will have 3 wires (turn signal power, parking light power, and ground).

You will want to splice the city light power to the parking light power, and the city light ground to the parking light/turn signal ground.

[AndrewBird]

Do not use scotch locks like shown above. They are VERY prone to failure and are all round a terrible product. Even more so, nyChris even used them wrong. The single wire coming from the tap should not stick out the end like that, especially with the end striped like that.

[deutschman]

Do not use scotch locks like shown above. They are VERY prone to failure and are all round a terrible product. Even more so, nyChris even used them wrong. The single wire coming from the tap should not stick out the end like that, especially with the end striped like that.

So whats the correct way to splice two wires together?

[nyChris]

Do not use scotch locks like shown above. They are VERY prone to failure and are all round a terrible product. Even more so, nyChris even used them wrong. The single wire coming from the tap should not stick out the end like that, especially with the end striped like that.

First off, I agree with you completely. I would not personally do that on my own car. Which is why I soldered the wires together. The OP did not seem electrically inclined, so I gave him the quick, and dirty solution.

Second off, that is a random picture I found on google image search. I was only trying to depict the basic idea of what using a quick splice would involve.

[nyChris]

So whats the correct way to splice two wires together?

Like this:

http://youtu.be/moMri-P-T6Y

You could also take the pins out from the turn signal connector, and add the city lights wires into the new pins.

[deutschman]

So why do you want to use crimps when conecting two wires, but use solder when splicing? Real question here, not being a smart ass. I thought solder makes things brittle?

[reelizmpro]

Those scotch locks aren't the most reliable way to splice but they work. That solder job in the video with heatshrink looks much cleaner however there are some practical limitations. One is that it's tricky to cleanly strip just the insulation of ONLY a section of wire that is not on the end. You can use an Xacto knife or razor but that's a bit tedious and you risk cutting yourself and/or the wire. Second is how would you get solid heat shrink tube on the wires? We're not dealing with wire ends here.

[Farintosh]

Hmm I've used a crimp splice so far then shrink wrapped the connections; seems secure und clean.
When I cut into my side marker wire I just found 2 wires, a brown and a grey; just like the city light. I may have cut too far back.
I look tomorrow and post pictures if necessary.

[AndrewBird]

I use uninsulated butt connectors and shrink tubing. Get a good pair of crimpers, they are only like $20, Channellock and Klein are both good and they sell both at Home Depot.

I cut the wire I am splicing into, then use a butt connector to re-connect it, including the wire I want to splice in along with one of the original wires. Don't forget to slide a piece of shrink tube over the wires before you make the final crimp.

Oh, and before anyone starts, there is a long and heated debate about whether crimping or soldering is better. I'm on the crimp side, but if both techniques are done properly, they are equally as good.

[Farintosh]

Hey! Unfortunately I got sick and had to wait a bit to get to work. I feel really dumb as I realized my side markers never did signal (no idea where I got that notion from).
Anyways I tapped into the side marker power and here's the final result!
Couldn't be happier!
Thanks everyone! :)

[Zreberlcoe]

On a late model aren't the city lights in the bumper?? Because if you splice it and solder then wire you can't take off your bumper any longer unless you want to feed the connector all the way through, right?

[Zreberlcoe]

On a late model aren't the city lights in the bumper?? Because if you splice it and solder then wire you can't take off your bumper any longer unless you want to feed the connector all the way through, right?

Ignore me.

I wired my city lights into my side markers and when the lights are on the city lights, parking lights, and turn signal illuminating lights are on... Should that be right on a late model?