I am building the rear bumper for my 88.5 Samurai and i removed the tail lights. i installed a 5 wire to 4 wire tail light converter and plugged in a trailer light set up and the turn signal and brake work but when the tail lights are one the brake and turns DO NOT work and the dash has alll crazy indicators. I am sure i have the correct wires on the sammy side bc i put a voltmeter to each one. please help

I am building the rear bumper for my 88.5 Samurai and i removed the tail lights. i installed a 5 wire to 4 wire tail light converter and plugged in a trailer light set up and the turn signal and brake work but when the tail lights are one the brake and turns DO NOT work and the dash has alll crazy flash patterns. I am sure i have the correct wires on the sammy side bc i put a voltmeter to each one. please help

You are off a bit on your wiring, it sounds like you have your turn signal wired into your running lights.

Going into the 5 wire side you have:

Brake Light
Running Light
Left Turn Signal
Right Turn Signal
Common Ground

Then you have three wires going to each side:

Brake Light (The bright one)
Running Light (The not-so-bright one)
Common Ground

Things to be aware of:

Unless you have a powered converter if your brakes are on your turn signals will NOT work. When you step on the brakes your turn signal will start to flash at double speed.  This is to be expected.  You need to spend the extra money on a powered converter to fix this issue.  With a powered converter it will allow one side to have the brakes and the light to blink on the other side.

Make sure you ground properly.  Otherwise you can get some weird activity, such as what you are seeing.

Merging the two threads...

-Eric

easy solution. if u don't want to use the trailer brake converter.  I put small led turn flashers in the one I built.  then used a 8 om 20 watt resistor from radioshack   5 bucks for 2 of them. to make the flasher flash correctly

To elaborate on drone376's post:

The Samurai is wired so that there is a lamp for each circuit - brake, turn and running lights.

North American vehicles combine the brake/turn signal circuits so that brake and turn use the same bulb - or it is running and brake...

Anyhow, If you buy a three-wire tail lamp at the auto parts store and try to wire it up to your Samurai, it don't work.

Here are links to two pages that explain it all:

http://www.acksfaq.com/ledflasher.htm

http://www.zukikrawlers.com/showthread.php?t=19178

easy solution. if u don't want to use the trailer brake converter.  I put small led turn flashers in the one I built.  then used a 8 om 20 watt resistor from radioshack   5 bucks for 2 of them. to make the flasher flash correctly

The above is a bit dangerous (creates heat) and inefficient.  A better fix is found in the second link, above.

Both links were found at Ack's FAQ (see link in my signature) by doing a search for turn signal

I hope that this helps!

i know i have the correct wires( i am an electrician and i know how to test and use a voltmeter thats why i am against test lights lol). i am not using leds just because these tail lights will get smashed a shit load of times and it will get very expensive. i hooked up the stock lights and everything worked perfect, and even the stock lights with the trailer converter and still worked. so that being said i removed the light put the trailer converter back in and splices a bulb onto each turn signal wire in parallel to the car side of the converter( to compensate for the possible loss of resistance in the circuit for removing the stock ones and the car picking it up and putting the circuit into a fault). also could i have the wrong converter, i bought i from NAPA and napa has a horrible computer system, they have a lot of parts miss marked in their system.

Your post gets very confusing at this point:

...so that being said i removed the light put the trailer converter back in and splices a bulb onto each turn signal wire in parallel to the car side of the converter( to compensate for the possible loss of resistance in the circuit for removing the stock ones and the car picking it up and putting the circuit into a fault). also could i have the wrong converter, i bought i from NAPA and napa has a horrible computer system, they have a lot of parts miss marked in their system.

If you are trying to install three-wire lamps in your Samurai, simply wire the trailer lamp converter as described in the packaging or at the top of this link:

http://www.acksfaq.com/ledflasher.htm

No resistors or extra bulbs are needed.  Most likely, they will create their own problems - even in troubleshooting.

If the installation is correct and it does not work, then the trailer lamp converter is bad.  Otherwise, double-check your wiring setup.

Any generic trailer lamp converter should work fine. Hopkins has the most-used/available unit around.  Here is a link to the installation document for the unit I have on my Samurai:

http://www.hopkinstowingsolutions.com/doc/46155.pdf

The document's wire color codes are not correct for the Samurai but it looks like you have that figured out anyway.

I hope that this helps!

I've done a few of those swaps and I've found bad convertor boxes on two occasions. I had to argue big time to get them exchanged but if you're sure about your wires then the box is bad.

You need a box if you're going to tow so you might as well get it in there and add the trailor plug in at the same time.

so what i understand from all you guys sine i am still going to use incadesent trailer lamps, a trailer plug will work even with the stock tail lights removed. i tried two converters from NAPA and still same problem. ill have to try a converter from another auto parts store since napa has a tendency to have the wrong parts for vehicles in their computer system.  All my wires are correct going to the converter but when i plug the trailer lights into the 4wire pin the tail lights over power the brake and turn signals and i do not have the wires on the trailer side backwards.

Any generic converter should work.  Mine is fine other then the fast turn signal issue I mentioned when the brakes are on and I use a two tail light setup on my SJ.

sorry to keep bothering everyone. i tried two converters from NAPA, i put the new JSO flasher(EP34) in, and also bypassed the bulb failure pin on the flasher circuit board. everything works( turn signals, hazards, and brakes) UNTIL i turn the parking lights on and then the two turn signals on the dashboard stays a steady green. Any ideas? also when i remove the converter and wore the stock tail lights back in everything works fine.

I don't know for sure about the Sammi, but the sidekick turns
on the lights by grounding the circuit, all wires will read "hot"
until the switch is in an activated position (on)

I learned this while trying to wire the high beam and low beam
headlights to both be on at the same time.

This might be the problem

Wild

It's acting like you don't have your ground setup properly.  When your running lights are on it is grounding out through the turn signals.

Just to verify, turn signals, brakes and hazards all operate the brighter bulb correct?  And you have the ground wire going to the existing ground?

yup i feel like an idiot, it was a loose ground on my front amber lights from removing the front side markers when i rebuilt the fenders. so now everything works with the converter, although the hazards dont work in the rear but they do work in the front (not to concerned). im going to change the hazard flasher, unless anyone has a different idea. also there is a slight lag when i use the turn signal to the funtion of the bulb, is that normal, not to concerned. im just happy to have this thing halfway road legal.  Thanks for all the help guys!!!!