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Hard-wiring tail lights 200 1988

posted by  whatthewhat on  Mon Oct 1 15:03 CST 2018
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I'm in the process of hard-wiring the tail-lights on my '88 240 sedan. I have taken off the circuit "board" and attached leads to all of the wires.

My layout:
Passenger side:
white - fogs
yellow - brake
brown - tail light
blue - turn
black - reverse

Driver's:
white - fogs
yellow/grey - brake
red - tail light
green - turn
black - reverse

My question is this: I understand that two of the lights must be wired to each side. Are these the tail lights, stop, or reverse? Is this the purpose of the three-tab sockets? I only have two of those.
Do I wire to the driver's side, then run one tab over to the passenger's side?
In other words, wire to the driver's side of the three-tab holders, then use the extra tab to run over to the passenger side?

Thanks for any help








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    Hard-wiring tail lights 200 1988

    posted by  james_a_sousa on  Thu Oct 4 21:16 CST 2018
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    last visit: Thu Oct 23 18:51 CST 2014
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    Your best resource would be a good wiring diagram.

    You might find one on eBay. For some models, vendors have made nice colored diagrams.

    Did you make a diagram of how the circuit boards work? If your car is like my 744, the sockets are different on each side, you cannot exchange them. I would expect the circuit boards may be different as well.

    Good luck.








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    Hard-wiring tail lights 200 1988

    posted by  Volvo From Heck on  Mon Oct 1 18:09 CST 2018
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    last visit: Mon Oct 13 20:56 CST 2014
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    I'm not quite sure of what you are asking--but the sockets with three "tangs" are for two filament bulbs (5W for tailight and something like 20W for brake lights) which serve the twin functions. One tang 12v. for each function and the third is a ground circuit. The tailights and brake lights run through the "bulb out" relay -- I think the reverse lights too - so running power from one side to the other will kill that feature. -- Dave








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      Hard-wiring tail lights 200 1988

      posted by  whatthewhat on  Tue Oct 2 08:58 CST 2018
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      Actually, you kind of answered it. My question was whether the two clusters were wired together in any way. It appears not.
      I only have two "three tang" sockets, both white, but neither of them are the 5W variety (there are no markings either way.) The 5W short sockets I have only have two "tangs." I might be missing some appropriate sockets. Not sure.
      What would be great is to see pics of hard-wired lights so I can compare what I'm doing. Lots of videos, but none are step-by-step.








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      LED tail lights 200 1988

      posted by  Trev29 on  Tue Oct 2 05:57 CST 2018
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      last visit: Fri Oct 17 05:56 CST 2014
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      "The tailights and brake lights run through the "bulb out" relay -- I think the reverse lights too - so running power from one side to the other will kill that feature. -- Dave"
      Just wondering if anyone has switched over to LEDs. If so, then the "bulb out" feature may not be necessary. (Ie. How often do LEDs burn out.) May even be required to exclude because of resistance differences.
      --
      1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.







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