Subject: SEO 6J6 parts: Factory vs. Home-Made
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 09:12:41 -0400
From: Ken Rolt

I had a chance to look over Ethan Maass' 95 9C1 a few weeks ago at the ISSCONE mtg (in New England), and I noted he had the factory-installed SEO 6J6 package, which is two 4" diameter (approximate size) red rear-facing extra brake and turn-signal lamps that are mounted in the rear passenger compartment, and mount on metal strips that attach behind the rear seat cushion. Imagine a lollipop and you'll get the idea, with the metal strip being the stem and the brake light being the sucker.

[ In case you didn't know, the 6J6 lights functions as extra brake lights, extra turn signal lights, and extra lights for the emergency flashers. Because they are red facing and because they duplicate functions of the rear (red) lights on *any* car, they are legal everywhere. I added this note in case anyone is worrying over legality on a non-police car. Red lights are legal facing aft for brake-turn-flasher lights, and white/clear lights are legal facing forward for headlights. FYI. ]

Now I had previously installed a home-brew version of these lamps, so I was interested in comparing Ethan's factory setup with mine. My mounting has each lamp installed thru a hole in the speaker plastic cover, and I have reinforced each cover with a fat metal washer underneath the cover. The + wire sneaks thru the slit used for the cover snap clips that can be viewed
from the inside of the trunk, and I added a ring solder-less connector plus wire to create a wire ground. The wire ground, the - terminal, also sneaks thru the slit, so it can be grounded inside the trunk.

The basic difference is that the factory (Ethan's) 6J6 setup is mounted on a plane between the seats and the package shelf, whereas mine are mounted further aft on the speaker covers themselves and hence closer to the rear window. The factory 6J6 are also spaced more closely, whereas mine are much closer to the C-pillars.

What stunned me about comparing the factory setup to mine is that I managed to buy the _exact same lamp housings_ used by
the factory, so both GM and I are using the OEM manufacturer. Each light is in a 4" (or so) diam black-painted metal housing with a red plastic lense, and each uses an 1156 lamp. Each housing is painted semi-gloss black.

Mfg details:      Blazer C355-1R Turn Signal
                       made by Pathfinder, a division of
                       Blazer International,
                       2960 Hart Drive
                       Franklin Park, IL 60131

Each light cost me about $5, and they conform (according to the package) to FMVSS 108 safety standards.

As far as legality is concerned, these are no more than an extra high mount stop light, as well as being auxially turn signals. So
as extra aft-facing red lights, they are no problem..... and should not ever be a problem.

Per the Chevrolet Specialty Vehicles brochure I have for 1996 models, these lamps use two 30A Bosch relays that are mounted in the trunk, and when wired, they actuate as both brake lights and turn signal indicators. The wires, per p. 8A-110-0 in my *1994* FSM are color coded as

        LR .5 Yel 18
        RR .5 Dk Grn 19

where 18 and 19 are circuit number references (labeled on the wires??? I don't yet know), and .5 is the wire gauge (metric), and LR and RR are obviously left-rear and right-rear.

The factory setup has them mounted just to the side of where a rear passenger would sit, so that they wouldn't really impair a driver looking aft. In my setup, I have them mounted almost as far left and right as one could go, and this was dictated by mounting them thru the speaker cover. Flipping each cover over to view the underside, and placing the underside reinforcing washer (which comes with each light) allows you to easily see where the hole should be drilled so as to allow the wires an easy escape into the trunk. The hole placement also places the lower half of the threaded lamp mounting stud in the recess used by the speaker cover clips. If you buy a light, and pull one speaker cover off (by squeezing 4 of the clips with pliers from inside the trunk) you'll see this better than I can explain it.

Ken Rolt

Subject: SEO 6J6 parts: factory
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 22:34:27 -0400
From: Scott Mueller
To: Ken Rolt

Ken,

> I had a chance to look over Ethan Maass' car a few weeks ago at the ISSCONE mtg (in New England), and I noted he had
> the factory-installed SEO 6J6 package...

I have all of the factory parts and am installing this in my '95 9C1 as well. I am using the factory brackets, relays, etc. As you found, these same lights are sold at Wal-Mart, Pep-Boys, and many other places. The only difficult parts to obtain are the brackets, which I got for free from some cars that were decommissioned.

> Per the Chevrolet Specialty Vehicles brochure I have for 1996 models, these lamps use two 30A Bosch relays that are mounted > in the trunk, and when wired, they actuate as both brake lights and turn signal indicators. I don't have relays installed yet, > and I believe Anil is running a similar setup and he isn't using relays either. [ note: when I wrote the orig text, I did not use > relays. I added them later. - KR ]

I STRONGLY recommend you use relays as per the factory setup. The problem is that the factory turn signal switch cannot properly handle the additional load. If you don't use the relays, the switch life will be significantly shortened, and it may even go up in smoke as it has on several cars running additional bulbs on that circuit.

I am using a trailer wiring harness connector to break out the turn signal and brake light power in the trunk,
and then running them to relays instead of using the power from the circuit directly. Using a trailer plug adapter means no factory wires are cut or spliced, and the entire thing can easily be unplugged.

I am also installing the SEO T53 Alternating Flashing Trunklid Warning Lamps, which use the exact same type of lamp as the 6J6 option, but they are on different brackets hanging from the underside of the decklid. When you open the trunk, a mercury switch powers a flasher circuit which begins flashing the lights in an alternating fashion.

I am adding a switch which will allow me to turn on and off these lights, overriding the mercury switch. Again these brackets are best pirated from a junked or decommissioned car since they are very expensive to purchase from the factory.

Scott.

Subject: 6J6 rear window brake lights
   Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:06:31 -0500
   From: Kenneth Rolt

> Hi again. I installed the rear brake lights, my sources tell me you have detailed wiring instructions :-)

I do !

> If you could forward those ken i would be grateful .. I have them
> working, I just went to the brake/blinker wires up on top of inside rear quarters ..

Good, then you know what wires you need. this will be easy to do now.

> Heavy duty flasher and they seem ok but........I would like to know more about these relays. p/n and location.

Chris could probably supply you with GM stuff, but my suggestion for these is to get the 30 A automotive relays available at most auto parts stores, especially the ones built by Bosch. I got mine from Radio Shack (yes, they had automotive relays) but Scott Peitzsch tells me that RS probably gets them from Bosch anyway.

The RS item (the box is conveniently on my desk here at work from a previous wiring adventure with Chris M) is p/n 275-226 "30 Amp auto relay" and it cost me $5.99 each. Check out Pep Boys or Autozone for the same basic thing, you don't have to use the RS item. They're a black cube of plastic and have 4 prongs on the back for spade solderless terminals, and have a plastic tang with a hole so you can mount them. I mounted mine to the bottom side (don't ask how) of the trunk hinge bracket. Here's some crude artwork to explain the wiring, and the picture is shown as you would be looking at the 4 terminals on the relay box:

               --- 86

        ---            | 87
       30 / 51

               --- 85

a) What you want to do is run a 12 volt power wire (I ran it from the 9C1 power plug under the dash, and used an inline fuse with it) to   87.   Actually you hook the power feed wire to BOTH of the 87 terminals because you need two relays, one for the left side of the car and the other for the right, and you need power available to both.

b) The pin labeled 30/51 (30 or 51) gets hooked to the center wire of one of the red stop lights (let's say we're doing the LEFT or driver's side light). The   87 -to- 30/51   path becomes completed when a switch, inside the relay box, gets closed. How it gets closed is from a magnetic action caused by a much smaller current, low power, fed across the _other_ two metal terminals: the 85 -to- 86 route. so now you need to hook those up.

c) Jumper into the LEFT (driver) side wire for the brake light power.   I used the shop manual and managed to figure out which wire was for the LEFT and which was for the RIGHT, but if you screw up here it just means you need to disconnect the terminals on the relay and swap them. it's no big deal. OK so use a jumper from the LEFT brake power wire in the trunk and connect it to 86.   You can use the insulation-displacement jumped plastic solderless terminals available at NAPA, Pep Boys, etc to get a jumper OR you can strip a bit of the insulation off each brake power wire and solder-in a jumper. The crimps are easier but not as good. I used the crimps and maybe someday I'll redo it with soldered jumpers.

d) Then connect   85   to a ground lug in the trunk. I used one of the holes in the trunk hinge support for a stainless bolt and used 2 toothed large washers so that the washers would bite into the paint and get to the metal ground.

Note: It is important that    85   be wired to ground, and that   86 come from the brake wire jumper. If you do it ass-backwards the (internal) switch will open wider, and never close, so nothing will work.

You did steps a-d for the LEFT light, now do the same for the RIGHT (pass side light).

If you do the above right, and I didn't screw up while writing it, then:

- both lights will come on when you step on the brake
- each light will work with the left or right turn signal
- both lights will work with the emergency flashers.

Try all three to make sure they work.

Buy some split loom plastic and some wire ties so you can clean up the rats nest of wiring in the trunk. also use some solder less terminals on the wire connections to the relays. I did all my crimping while standing behind the car so I could measure and cut the wires so that they were pretty close to the right length. I also put the relays on the left side of the car (where the factory puts them) and used 2 long wire runs to get to the pass side light.

Ken Rolt