MCI MC 5 LED stoplight redux

[bevans6]

Well, my 24 volt 7" diameter LED lights arrived, I got these ones   http://www.allightech.com/7INCH%20RND.htm  You have to find a dealer of them, and then they have to special order them because the 24 volt ones aren't typically in stock.  Apparently they may be more common in Europe now.  The dimension is not actually 7", nor is it the 7.2" that I could have seen if I had actually checked the schematic, it's closer to 7.25" at the flange.  The recess in the stock MCI 5/8/9 tail light housing is about 7.1" diameter.  So a combination of sanding down the flange and die-grinding out the edge of the recess had them fitting OK.  The screw hole bolt circle was correct, so after drilling out the holes to fit the 10/32 screws that fit the MCI mounts they screwed right on.  Since they are combination stop/tail lights, rather than just stop lights the way the MCI sealed beams are, I wired them for dual function.  As you would expect of modern LED lights intended for school bus use, they are very satisfyingly bright!  Only issue is the stop light sensor tell-tale on the dash doesn't sense them, so it stays off.  I haven't bothered to look at the schematic yet, because the book is out in the bus and it's cold out, but the dash light is supposed to only light if both rear brake lights are operating properly.  All in all, not perfect, not a drop in, but OK so far.

I also changed the light bulbs in three of the running lights up top - one was completely full of water!  No wonder it didn't work.  After I drained it and such, a new bulb and it was fine, along with a healthy dose of gasket silicone to block the water entry point.  One had a faulty socket, a little jury rigging fixed that temporarily, and one just had a plain old burnt out bulb.  I definitely see changing them out for LED's at some point, but for now we are good to go.  Luke has a care package of new lenses and gaskets for the 5" diameter stock turn signal and running lights on the way, and I will be renovating the fixtures at the same time.  I have new light bulbs waiting to go in.

I also started upgrading the interior a bit.  We had a typical arborite-on-plywood table, on really cheesy lumber store legs, and I changed it out.  We had aquired, as you do when your older relatives start to down size and give you their keepable furniture, an antique drop-leaf table, made of solid quarter-sawn white oak and with screw-turned legs.  I took off one of the leaves, two of the legs, fastened the top to the wall of the bus with angle brackets, used my new pocket screw jig to fasten the two front legs firmly to the floor, and voila, antique table in the BOB (Big Ole Bus)!  Looking for some sturdy oak chairs to match, and the renovation to Mission/Craftsman style has begun!

Cheers, Brian

[AJ]

Good information.
I have a question for you.
I need to adapt a combination LED tail lights to a MC8. How should I connect the light?

AJ

[bevans6]

LED lights just connect using the same wires as the incandescent bulbs, using your connector of choice.  I just spliced in using butt connectors but when I get around to cleaning up the wiring I will use weather tight disconnects.   There is a ground wire, and leads for the stop and tail  functions, it's quite straight forward.

Brian

[belfert]

Good information.
I have a question for you.
I need to adapt a combination LED tail lights to a MC8. How should I connect the light?

If you buy a combination LED light and only need either turn or brake just hook up the wire going to the brightest light setting.

I used Weather Pack connectors for every light when I converted my lighting to LED.  For the combination lights where I used only one function I used the three way connectors and then just put a plug in the unused connection on the chassis side of the wiring.

[Chuck Newman]

AJ,

All the above is correct, just remember to use 24 vdc LED's if you have a 24 vdc coach.  Otherwise you can use metal power resistors to drop the voltage, or power the 12 vdc LED's via relays from a 12 vdc source.

Chuck