I bought a Rebel Wire 9+3 kit a little while ago based on what I read here on the HAMB about them being good folks and they provided pretty good support, even going so far as to offer advice on others wiring kits. Plus they were an Alliance member. I have tried repeatedly to contact them via phone, via their website, and via a PM here on the HAMB with no response at all. I have called multiple times at various times of the day and either I get a busy signal or nobody picks up and it keeps on ringing. Is anybody else having this problem with them? I have their kit installed and most everything went well but I am having a problem integrating the turn signals with the brake lights. They each work fine independent of each other. Turns work fine. Park lights work fine. When I try to get the brake light to come on and have it revert to a turn signal it doesn't work. I have single socket dual filament bulbs for brake, turn, and running lights. I admit I am strictly a novice when it comes to wiring a car so if something else is needed to make this work I will happily get it. My brother who knows this stuff is also confused on why this isn't working and without input from Rebel I am stuck. I have previously used a Painless wiring kit and had no problems wiring my 47 myself and this is starting to aggravate me.
I don't understand what you mean about "revert".... what happens when you push the brake pedal, when the turn signals are off? what happens when you push the brake pedal, when one turn signal is on? tell us what the light bulbs do...like for example, left side stays on, right side blinks
Hey Jim. I am trying to figure out how to use a toggle switch for my turn signals with the brake light circuit. If I leave the brake lights unconnected to my turn switch they will come on and off correctly. If I put the park/tail lights on they come on and off correctly as well. If I then connect this to a single pole double throw switch to get my brake lights to work as turn signals on the same circuit (single socket dual filament bulb) I get whichever side is selected to come on but it doesn't flash, also the front and rear lights on that side are lighted. I am a novice at this so if I am not explaining things correctly bear with me and I will try to clarify where needed. what happens when you push the brake pedal, when the turn signals are off? When the brakes are wired by themselves with nothing else on the circuit the brake lights come on. what happens when you push the brake pedal, when one turn signal is on? The brake light comes on, as well as the front turn signal, but doesn't flash.
I did a left/right switch on my roadster and bought a special switch with its own diagram from Painless to make it work.
I used this switch: http://kwikwire.com/toggle-turn-signal-switch-with-wire-harness/ Here's another: https://www.americanautowire.com/6337-2/ https://www.americanautowire.com/shop/toggle-turn-signal-switch
turn signal switches are complicated, you can't just replace one with a normal toggle switch... Wiring diagrams are helpful, for folks to understand what you are doing, so they can help you. But they are also difficult to draw, if you're not used to doing this stuff. Give it a try....maybe it will help. show the switches, and the lights, and the wires connecting them.
I'm unsure what you would expect of Rebel. You have created something without understanding how the circuits work and it sounds like you want them to re-design it to work?
Jim, I am thinking it is as simple as I am not using the correct switch based on the info posted by ups pirate above. The switch I have does not have as many connections as the ones shown in the links above. I was trying to wire this up so that I didn't have an ugly assed add on turn signal hanging on my steering column and was going to put a toggle under the dash for turn signals. I have an add on turn signal switch coming so I'll try working with that to see where I get. Thanks.
Mr T body I am not doing anything hundreds if not thousands of hot rodders have done for decades. I am doing turn signals just not using the typical switch built into the column, and all I ask of Rebel is to give me the benefit off supporting the product they sold me, not redesign anything.
Rebel builds harnesses to use normal turn signal switches...you actually are asking them for something extra. But yeah, back to your question...the reason that turn signal switches have so many connections, is that they are needed to do what you want to do. If you can add a separate bulb for the turn signals, instead of trying to make it work with the brake lights, then it gets easier. But to make a turn signal switch work with brake lights, it has to have 6 wires, and a pretty fancy mechanism inside.
Purchased a harness from them a few years ago when I was finishing my 46.Was pretty straight forward process but I did run into one issue.Was on a Sunday and figured I would just call to see if they would answer.Was really surprised when they answered the call and helped me out.Thought that was pretty cool of them to do that.I know that doesn't help you out much but I think most of the time they are pretty helpful and stand behind their product.I think the person I talked to was Glen but they may have different distributors now.
Thanks Jim. I am thinking it needs the 6 connection switch instead of what I have. By the way, I am only asking for information from Rebel. I AM NOT asking them to change or modify anything. I want the benefit of their knowledge on how their system works and if I am able to use it the way I am trying to. If I can't that is all I need to hear from them. Not hearing anything is part of the problem.
buck 32 has what you need /\ A trailer adapter box wired into what you have now will do the trick with the toggle switch.
yup, you have two separate problems...no phone answer from Rebel, and figuring out how to make your turn signals work. we can only help with one, but doing so kind of eliminates the need to fix the other.
Do you have GOOD grounds on all of the light sockets? Also try replacing the bulbs, a broken filament shorted to the other filament can give you all kinds of weird results.
The trailer wiring adapter gizmo works really well if I understand what you are trying to do. Anytime you have one light bulb filament doing double duty or controlled from 2 places things will get complicated. If there is just one bulb per side,,, The high side of a single socket dual filament bulb get controlled from your foot for brakes and your hand for turn signals. That's why the 7 wire turn signal switch needs 7 wires , to figure out what to tell the light bulb to do,,, to do different things on the same wire. The switch connects the front and rear signals for you hand and breaks that connection for your foot. The trailer wiring converter is pretty smart inside of it, it can do that job as well because it has (how many) seven wires.
The quick wire switch I posted and shared was easy to use as is with a plug to just plug into the column harness of universal harnesses (Usually GM) I complicated it some by eliminating the plug and wiring direct, but was easy to match up the colored wires. Here is a pic of mine in a panel I made for under the dash. The straight switch is the turn signal one,and I oriented it so that you turned it/right to activate instead of up/down. The panel was made of aluminum ,shaped to fit curve of dash,polished edges and painted to match the grained gauge insert. I also hooked it to LED indicators in the other insert instead of the ones previous owner had under the column as shown. The lever on the column shown was for tilt, not turn if you wondered why I didn't use it. left
but the turn signal switch from american autowire, its not expensive and is plug and play with the rebel harness. i used one on mine i just did, i was able to get them on the phone ( tech support ) and he even recommended the american autowire turn signal switch.
This helps guys. I tried the 3 position switch with the trailer converter and can't get it to work. I'll try the turn signal switch auto wire has if the cheapo add on turn signal switch I ordered doesn't do it for me. For the folks who suggested checking grounds all the circuits work fine by themselves so I don't think it is a ground issue. Nice and bright and come on fine. Thanks.
Did you have the front signal lights hooked up when you tried the converter? Seems to me the converter has an internal ground that uses the opposite sides lights filament as the ground. If the fronts were not hooked up the ground stops at the toggle switch and the converter won't function.
Rich, I have tried a bunch of different ways to wire it and I think I did have the fronts wired in at the same time, but a good question and I will check into that tomorrow to be sure. Thanks!
Th rebel guys posted here not long ago. Posted the fuse box info. Don't understand the having trouble contacting. I've contacted several times when using their kits. Really helpful.
Which trailer light converter did you use? There's a bunch and different configurations 5,6,7, and 9 wire which is a 7 with 2 grounds. Also the diagram above doesn't really have or show any headlight switch input and it needs one.
31Vicky here is a shot of the one I grabbed. I just noticed this one does not show any brake function on the output side/trailer side? Didn't notice that before being a novice at this.
that's the whole point of them...it gets turn signal and brake input, and sends output to a combined brake/turn light for each side. It connects 3 wires to two bulbs. the "right turn" and "left turn" outputs include brake light activation, when required.
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