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Reply to "How to install updated Spyder taillights?"

Spyders usually only have one turn/park fixture on each corner. Some guys wire the "city lights" in the headlight bucket as park bulbs either alone or with the smaller front lights. I didn't.

The clear ones in front use amber bulbs, park and turn. I used a 3157 amber LED with appropriate socket. If you use LED lights you can easily change to an LED flasher. I found a 2 wire(yours may be 3) model by Audew on Amazon for 6 bucks.

The rear light assemblies use the same bulb but clear. I got the bulbs right at Autozone.

There are two ways to tackle the wiring. Most guys use a trailer converter, the kind that you use to wire a european tow vehicle to the single taillights on a trailer. 5 wires in, 4 wires out: blue=stop, yellow=left turn, green=right turn, brown=park, and white=ground. There are 4 wires out, the same colors all, excepting the blue. Easy peasy. If you go this way, buy a good one, they used to have a tendency to burn out. I believe this tendency may be alleviated by using LED bulbs, as they draw less current.

I did it another way. I used 4 relays for the turn/stop function. Two relays are wired to the brake switch and rear bulbs and the other two relays to the front turn bulbs. If you search VW turn signal wiring you can find schematics.

Either way you do it, I recommend you include a 4-wire trailer pigtail near the clamshell hinges for easy on-off. I've been doing it this way for twenty years and it works very well.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it.

In some countries they REQUIRE 2 separate fixtures for the taillights, and usually the stop lights are red and the turn signals are amber. Easy to do with a Speedster, either the beehives or the teardrop lights have provision for separate bulbs. Not so in a Spyder.

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