Blinking Front Marker Lights

HOW TO REWIRE YOUR FRONT SIDE MARKER LIGHT TO BLINK WITH THE TURN SIGNALS.

The following modification was passed along to me by a friend and I thought it might be of interest to the other Pantera owners out there. It can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time (unless you're like me and spend extra time detailing while you've got the wheels off!) It can also be done without ever disconnecting the battery. The only hitch is that it only works on cars like the Pantera where the ground to the side marker lights is carried thru the wiring of the car instead of being grounded to the chassis via the light socket itself.

My Pantera is an early model '73L (#5042) with the dual pod dash. The wiring colors I have used in the following description are based on the schematic that I have as well as what I actually found while doing the modification ( and believe it or not they matched).I have tried to make the mod. as simple as possible by breaking the job up into step-by-step instructions. Hopefully, you will not find these instructions to lengthy but if you're "electrically challenged" like I am you need all the help you can get!

RIGHT FRONT

1. Jack up the car enough to remove the right front tire & wheel.

2. Remove the splash shield to gain access to the wiring for the right front lights.

3.Raise the front headlights & leave them in the upright position, but turn them off. In this position you will have adequate space to work on the wiring to the parking & side marker light.

4.There should be three wires going into the side marker light. On my car one of the wires was "Yellow/Black" (power) & the other two wires were "Black" & were tied together in a "Y" to make the ground connection on the other side of the light socket.

5. Cut the two "Black" ground wires several inches before they enter the light socket & tape or use heatshrink tubing

to cover the cut ends that formerly came out of the factory wiring harness & went to the socket. These wires will no longer be used ,so tape them out of the way.

6. You should now have a pigtail of two cut "Black" (ground) wires coming out of the side light socket itself. Strip a little of the insulation off of both of these wires & wrap these two stripped ends together to form a single wire.

7. Locate the wire carrying the blinking turn signal power that goes to the right front turn signal. On my car this was a "Light Blue" colored wire.

8. The trick to this conversion is to make a connection between this "Light Blue" wire( that feeds power to the right front turn signal) & the two cut "Black" ground wires that you now have twisted together coming out of the right front side marker light socket.

9. Using whatever method you prefer, connect a length of 14 gauge hookup wire to the "Black" ground wires coming out of the sidemarker light & cover the splice to waterproof it.

10. Snake the other end of this 14 gauge hookup wire to a point of your choosing along side the "Light Blue" power wire going to the front turnsignal. In my case, I merely removed about 3/4" of insulation off the "Light Blue" wire without cutting it and soldered the other end of my 14 gauge hookup wire directly alongside it forming a "Y" connection & then covered this joint with heatshrink tubing.

11. Now, before you button everything back up, turn on the ignition & the right turnsignal & make sure everything is working properly. Your side marker light should be blinking right along with your front turn signal .

With the side marker lights doing more work as a blinker, I decided it might make sense to replace the light bulb while I had everything apart.

This modification is then repeated at the other three corners of the car. You will notice that at the other three side marker lights you will only have one black ground wire coming out of their sockets instead of the two that we had to deal with on the right front. Here are the colors of the wires that feed power to the blinking turn signal lights at the other three corners of the car:

LEFT FRONT - Light Blue/ Black

RIGHT REAR - Light Blue

LEFT REAR - Light Blue/ Black

Remember that these are the wires that you "Y" into and run your new lead to the Black wire coming out of your side marker light socket that formerly was the side marker light ground wire.

Hopefully, you will find this mod. as interesting as I did. At least it kept me in the garage several evenings doing what I enjoy the most during COLD Kansas winter nights- working on my Pantera!!

Bob Radefeld

Topeka, Kansas

bob@dodgecarroll.com