3 Light Trailer Wiring (30 series Eagles)

From AMC Eagle Nest member Jim

This is pretty self-evident when pointed out. I wish someone had pointed it out to me in 1980. You may have noticed that our Eagles have a three-light system on each side in the back, as do many if not all foreign cars and some American cars. This means you have a brake light, tail light, and a separate turn signal light. In the two light system found on ordinary cars, the brake light blinks for a turn signal. If you buy a generic Wallyworld trailer light kit it will be for the two- light system, with no provision for turn signals when used on our three-light system. My kit did have a helpful suggestion - buy converter #5410. The Rambler mentality kicked in. The kit had a pair of amber, lighted side marker lights. I mounted them in back next to the red brake lights. I located the wires to the turn signals and connected them to the amber lights. I now have 6 rather than 4 wires to the trailer. I do need to find better connectors for plugging and unplugging the wires. I also color coded them so I had left to left and not vice-versa. I like the fact that I have amber turn signals on the trailer to match the Eagle. As we have mentioned often, the most common problem with trailer lights is faulty ground. The lights ground by the mounting bolts so they need to mount to clean bare metal. The light kit has a wire to be connected directly to the trailer. I have run a ground wire from a mounting bolt on each light to the same bolt as the ground wire in the kit. A number of years ago I pulled a Hobie Cat thousands of miles in the South and all along the Gulf coast, with a 78 Toyota Celica Liftback and an old one-ton Chevy van sort of converted to a home made camper. I learned a lot about trailer lights. However, I never had trailer turn signals with the Toyota.