Vannin' Home Forums Chevy Troubleshooting UPDATE - GOT ALL THE LED'S WORKING

Well the 91 van has been back for about 3 weeks now from the body & paint shop. But with all the normal post winter property work needed around here with the addition of all the late winter ice & heavy snow storms had a lot of tree limbs and branches down has kept me from working on the "shorty" project but got back to it today installing al the new exterior LED light bulbs and ran into one problem.....(and I cannot remember if they worked with I bought the van 18 months ago)...cannot get the front side marker lights to work. Now they look just the same as the rear marker lights with two wires connected to it (one is ground and the other is power). Checked the electrical manual and "IT" shows just one wire (hot side) going to the socket and the nothing connected from ground to the socket.....Can anyone suggest what the problem might be? (Am going to check with a volt meter tomorrow to see if 12 volts is coming into the socket and also try check the ground connections)

thanks

UPDATE (LAST i HOPE): (1991 CHEVY G-20 SHORTY)
Well installed the new 2 pin LED flasher, connected the gauge console and everything works as designed.
The front side marker lights "DO" flash when the a turn signal is activated but the rear side makers lights do not. The gauge console HAS to be connected for everything to work correctly. (problem with the left front side marker light not working was some paint got on the contacts..sanded it off and works fine now)

The headlights were (4) 4X6 Holly Retrobright's; work great they just plug in like the original types

The list of LED bulbs for the exterior that I used from superbrightleds.com..

FRONT & REAR SIDE MARKERS: 194-CW5-CBT - COOL 5000K
FRONT TURN SIGNALS: 1157-A30-CBT (AMBER COLOR)
REAR TAIL, STOP & TURN - COOL 5000K: 1157-CW30-CBT
REAR BACK UP: GOT PAIR 1156-CW27-T BUT FOR SOME REASON THEY WOULD NOT "LOCK" OR TURN INTO THE SOCKETS SO JUST RE-INSTALLED THE ORIGINAL ONES AND WILL LOOK INTO THAT LATER.
LICENSE PLATE: 67-CW12-G (HAVE NOT INSTALLED IT YET..REAR BUMPER IS ALL COVERED AND TAPED UP SO IT WON'T SCRATCHED WHILE WORKING IN THE INTERIOR BUT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM.

Hope this helps anyone else thinking of converting the exterior light bulbs over to LED's. I am sure the "year" of van makes a difference

Yeah the multimeter will tell all here. If the ground is good on the plug, and the hot has 12v, it's probably your LED bulbs.

If the ground is good and you don't get 12v, I would then ask, do you have the turn lights in your grille?

the paint N body shop may not have connected back in right.

Yeah, multimeter time, check for good ground, I've had to move grounds around, paint or just hard to find a good ground on the body, check the ground on you battery to body.

Well since your pullin your side markers time to get some Nomad side markers ... they have chrome down the middle N split the 1 lens into 2 ... Item #2

https://www.lmctruck.com/1971-12-ch...m-1971-02-front-sidemarker-and-reflector

Thanks for the quick replies….
It is not the new LED bulbs…first thing I did was swap with the ones in the back

Yes my 91 has the 4 headlight system so the front turn signals lamps are mounted in the grill (at this point they work but need to replace the old flasher with a LED flasher…when I activate either turn signal the front & rear turn signal lamps come on but do not flash…)

Body/paint shop did not do anything with them….I already had the lenses off and bulbs removed and the front and rear sockets pulled inside the body out of the way

Have not installed the new “older” Nomad style lenses yet just have the sockets hanging out…..will have to try that and see if it makes a difference (I opened one briefly when they got delivered a few months ago…if they do have a metal frame that should correct the problem I would assume). but since the front marker sockets “look” the same as the rear (which work fine) “two wires connected…assuming negative & positive (still do not understand why the electrical manual shows just the one “hot” wire going to the socket and the ground is connected through the chassis/body…..) will still test with meter later today…..

Well you won't believe what just happened. I had my dash lights fuse blow and could not figure it out. Well it eventually started working again after I changed some bulbs back there. But guess what no longer works? That's right my front indicators and speedometer. Luckily I have a spare speedometer unit at the house.

If you don't get voltage from those connectors I think I just found your problem.

Funny you should ask.......I checked with the meter and there is good ground and 12 volts with the light switch on?????? One would think the light bulb would work then also but no (tried using the new LED and the old bulb...same result.... One thing I did notice that when "fiddling" with the driver''s side connector I noticed that the front turn signal/parking lights flickered.....do not have the original flasher unit in place because I ordered an LED one which is being delivered to tomorrow..... but I do have another question......are the front side makers supposed to "flash" along with the front turn signals when activated for a turn? Again it's a 91......
Also...I do not have the gauge cluster back in yet......wondering if hat has anything to do with it?????

The ground feeds through the front turn signal bulb and that's how you get the back and forth between the bulbs with the turn signal on. Yes intentional gremlins! You have to find balance again, you lost balance with the LED's. You can try a resistor to ground from the ground side wire on the side marker. I make no claim it will work, you need to experiment. If you look online they may make a module to force a correction. When it all stops working swap to a electronic flasher, they make one now with a ground tail.When you get the cluster back in you may see the indicator lights on when the headlights or park lights are turned on, use the resistors to get rid of it.

Thanks for the reply...Have a LED electronic flasher being delivered today so when it arrives will install that and also will temporary re-install the gauge cluster just to see if that not being in place might fave something to do with it..for some reason I remember reading something last year about the turn signal lights in the gauge cluster effect how the turn signals work...yadie, yadie, etc....

I know this is old but I have all LED exterior and interior lights and they work flawlessly in my 95 G20

Here’s what I did for the exterior:

-Resistors for the front turn/parking light bulbs
-Resistors for the rear tail/stop bulbs.

All other leds work like factory. No hyper flash or other weirdness.
I even added a mod to the third brake light to multiflash the led bulb there, ya know for the texting teen idiots lol

Interior, including cluster are LED fitted and work great.

Hope this helps someone!

Have not gotten to the interior lights yet but getting closer…..