LED Grille Lights

I have LED headlights on my 86 SBC but cannot find LED grille mounted parking lights. Can I put an LED bulb in the socket or is there an LED parking light yall can recommend?

I personally do not have LEDs in the parking lights. However, I do know putting them in the front park/directional signal lights can be problematic. The side markers lights depend on grounding through one of the two filaments of the 1157 incandescent bulb. (which filament they ground through depends on whether your park lights are on or not)

It is a different type of setup than most lights- this is why your side markers & front directional lights blink together with park lights off but alternate with park lights on. -Thus moving to LEDs is a little more complicated.
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Hopefully someone will be able to give you advice to get this accomplished.

I've just got some Amazon special LED bulbs in my stock parking lights. Wired in a 50ohm resistor and they work fine. My whole truck is LED

TotalyHucked said:

I've just got some Amazon special LED bulbs in my stock parking lights. Wired in a 50ohm resistor and they work fine. My whole truck is LED

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You have a link to those? Mainly want LED so they last longer as those lights aren't easy to get to.

jasonf79 said:

You have a link to those? Mainly want LED so they last longer as those lights aren't easy to get to.

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I *think* these are the ones. It's been 4+ years but looking back through my Amazon, this was around that time

TotalyHucked said:

My whole truck is LED

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@TotalyHucked - What are you using in the side markers? non-polar LEDs?

I'm just curious since LEDs are definitely improving (or at least changing)- In the beginning LEDs only let current go in one direction, now they evidently make non-polar.
Some other problems that were occurring when replacing the front turn signals with LEDs, it could cause the side makers not to work or could caused the lights to be dim or bright, & could back feed and light the dash indicator. -Evidently it all depended on the manufacturer/specs of the LEDs used.

Jgonick said:

@TotalyHucked - What are you using in the side markers? non-polar LEDs?

I'm just curious since LEDs are definitely improving (or at least changing)- In the beginning LEDs only let current go in one direction, now they evidently make non-polar.
Some other problems that were occurring when replacing the front turn signals with LEDs, it could cause the side makers not to work or could caused the lights to be dim or bright, & could back feed and light the dash indicator. -Evidently it all depended on the manufacturer/specs of the LEDs used.

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Sorry, forgot to respond back to this last week. Same thing with the side markers, just some random 194 LEDs off Amazon. Couldn't tell ya if they're polar or not, I had them laying around from other projects and just tried them, they happened to work. Running light/marker is dim and then they blink properly with the signal with no backfeed.

They look identical to this, although I couldn't tell ya what brand they were. I probably bought them 6+ years ago

Some notes I had from when I changed my exterior lights to LED...

If the bulb is behind a colored lens (red, for example) use red colored LEDS...dont get too hung up on lumens or wattage power output. The colored lens is a light filter and will only allow the respective wavelength to pass thru...so why push 100 lumens of white light (red+blue+green) when 30 lumens of red is all you need...plus the color is very pure/deep.

Never liked the solution of a parallel shunt resistor to make LED's work...the primary reason I went to LED was due to the low current demand properties...giving my 50 year-old harness, sockets and switches a break (though they must be in serviceable condition to begin with)
Avoid automotive LED's that are "CAN Bus" compatible for the same reason...all they are is an LED with a parallel shunt resistor.

Here's a circuit I used to get the squarebody ('75) front side markers to function as running lights and turn signals when converting to LED's.
This approach intentionally dims the side marker lights to provide high contrast when the turn signal is applied...it surprising how dim you can go with the side markers and still have them highly visible at night!