Much like wearing flannel boxer shorts on a hot summer day, some things just get to me. Hi, fellow Jeep people, my name is Randy. I'm here to help with those little hairy creatures in your Jeep. You know, I really don't like them after they are fed after midnight, so I call them hairy creatures. I am talking about gremlins, of course, but not the real gremlins. I mean the electrical kind, like you might have in your Jeep.Anyway, the thing that gets to me is that no one uses a diode anymore. Well, I'm not sure if they ever used them to begin with really, but diodes are misunderstood and really should see more use in the automobile than they do. You see, a diode is really neat in that it will only let electricity flow in one direction. See that little band on it? That tells you which way electricity can go. Anyway, this is neat because it prevents that lazy electricity from going where you don't want it in the Jeep and preventing problems.
Pete Trasborg used a diode in his install of a new speedometer in a Wrangler elsewhere in this issue (page 84), and while he didn't credit me with the idea, you and I both know he couldn't have come up with that on his own. They are also good to prevent LEDs from getting burned out from backcurrent.
You see, sometimes, when you shut something off it doesn't really go off, but for an instant, the electricity flows the opposite way as it does normally before the circuit comes to rest. The problem is, the LEDs in taillights and stuff like that don't usually like backflow of current, and it can burn them out too early. That is why you should put diodes in line with your new LED lights if you aren't sure they are built in.
This is a diode. It can also...
This is a diode. It can also be called a rectifier. The leads on it are solid, which means they can be brittle. Crimping is not the way to go with these, as squishing the weak leads will only lead to it breaking sooner; use solder. If you aren't sure which way to put the stripe, test it first--nothing can be hurt by installing the diode the wrong way.
Strip the wire and solder...
Strip the wire and solder it to the diode using the solder tricks I showed you before. Then cover it with either heat-shrink tubing or electrical tape. Make sure that you don't fasten the diode so it is under tension. It needs to flop around a bit in the Jeep, so make sure the wire does the flexing--not the diode.
I couldn't find any diodes...
I couldn't find any diodes on these lights, and while they are really sturdy, I added one to each positive wire so that they would keep going for a long, long time. If you are in doubt about your lights, add it. They are cheap and simple insurance against the fancy LED dying too soon.