tailights on 98 DS help

[Sbranche]

I had to replace the taillights. the current ones had two wires, one black and one red. the news have three wires, one red, one black and one white. How do I wire this? Thanks for your help. Btw, the new ones are LED.

[CartTrader]

Black is ground....of the other 2 ...one is for running lights (Parking lights) the other if for brake lights turn signals.. If you are not going to have brake or turn signals..use the black and any one of the other wires. In LED lights the black must be ground or they will not work.

CartTrader

[mrgolf]

If you don't have brake light switch, you could now add switch to have brake lights. Not that hard to do. I did mine not long ago. I don't remember off hand which wire was brake light an which was tail light. Just touch 12 volts to each and you will be able to tell.

[Sbranche]

Using a 12v test light, I am reading hot on both the black and the red wires to the original lights (2 wires). They were working like that. So why would the black read hot?

[mrgolf]

Ok I just checked my notes. Red is for brake light. Black is for tail light. White is neg.

You may have to change some the other wires to comply with the new tail light assemblies.

[CartTrader]

Originally Posted by Sbranche

Using a 12v test light, I am reading hot on both the black and the red wires to the original lights (2 wires). They were working like that. So why would the black read hot?

How are you testing the wires? If those are the original wires ...something is amiss!

CartTrader

[mrgolf]

That is the way mine was wired before I hooked up the brake lights. They will work because we do not use frame as ground. They somehow pick up neg through the light assemblies or something. I think everyone just assumes black is neg. on these lights it is for the tail light and white is neg.

[CartTrader]

Originally Posted by mrgolf

That is the way mine was wired before I hooked up the brake lights. They will work because we do not use frame as ground. They somehow pick up neg through the light assemblies or something. I think everyone just assumes black is neg. on these lights it is for the tail light and white is neg.

He only has 2 original wires going to the light. One red and one black with both having power. You cannot get ground thru the light without being grounded. I do not assume black is ground!

CartTrader

[mrgolf]

My cart had two wires going to it also. I never checked to see what had power, but the tail lights did work. The black and red were hooked to the lights. I don't remember how I determined this was wrong. In order to get them to work with a brake light I put a micro switch on the brake pedal. Ran a wire to the red at the brake lights. Connected the white to neg. The brown from my light assembly connected to the red wire that was connected to tail lights. And that's the way it is.

[Stevegrmich]

. . . white is hot, black is ground and the red would not be used for tail lights that are only running lights . . .

. . . didn't you get a new harness with your new lights?