HELP!! wiring problem!

Hello, I have a 49 studebaker pickup on a 93 Ford Ranger frame with a pontiac 350 vortex and a 700R4 trans. Its going to be a awesome ride. It also has the steering column from the firebird donor.
Okay the problem; I still have the wiring harness from the Ranger. It has the independent bulb system and I want to go a common system with one bulb for turn, brakes, and taillights. I bought a trailer converter but can't make it work. I would even be open to striping out the wiring and installing a new common system but I don't know how. I know that I am not the only one to want to do this, just the latest. Can anyone help? Thanks very much.  

I believe this should be fairly easy.  Pick up a set of common sockets(which you probably already have) and there should be either three wires or two if the socket is grounded through the socket itself.  1 wire will be for turn, one for brake and if there is a third one for the ground.  I believe there is only one bulb for the brake and one signal per side from what I see on the pics of them.  Hopefully this helps.  

You are going to need to get the wiring diagram for the Pontiac Firebird turn signal switch and match your wires to it. That will allow you to get back down to just two bulbs in the rear, UNLESS the Pontiac also had seperate bulbs for each function, and of my own knowledge I do not know.  

The bulbs you want are 1157 or the more modern equivalent I can't remember the number. An 1157 socket typically has 2 wires, the body is metal and is assumed to be grounded, or in other words make sure it is grounded. 1 wire for tail light, 1 wire for brake AND Turn. The more modern equivalent might be in a plastick socket and then of course it will have a ground wire, 1 for brake AND turn, and 1 for tail lights. If you doubt my accuracy on this have some one run the lights on a vehicle with the single bulb per side system. You will notice that the brake light is interupted by the turn signal and the tail light will burn continously confirming my assertion.

Regarding your column Jonrat10 is basically right. If the donor car has a tail light system like the Ranger your project will get more interesting, you can still use the column to get where you want to go. You will need to bring the rear turn signal wires together with the brake light wire, however you will need to employ diodes to keep feedback from lighting up the whole car. You can get them at radio shack. In case you don't know a diode is like a one way valve for electricity, and must be installed in the right direction to work as desired.

On my hot rod I only use one turn signal indicator light on the dash. I took the relay out of a horn relay leaving an empty can and a base with 3 posts. I soldered in 2 diodes, such that both of them are connected at one end to one post. You might need to do something like this, brake light in, turn signal in. one wire back to the rear lamp.  Imagine a "Y" the brake light power comes in from one leg at the top, turn signal power comes in the other top leg, both legs have a diode installed so electricity can not go back out either of the top legs. Then of cousre the bottom leg goes to the rear lamp. You will need one device for righthand and one for lefthand. Easy.

Oh yeah have fun sorting out all the wires to the column its mind bender  but you can do it with an inexpensive multimeter (radioshack again) if just take the time to think about what is going on and maybe even take some notes. when I am sorting one out I getr roll of tape and a pen so I can label the wires as I identify. Especially since different things happen depending on the turn signal switch position.

Good Luck  

the trailer converter should work but you would need one for the front and one for the rear. they are just diodes in and easy to use box.  

The heart of the system you're trying to build is the steering column.   The turn signal switch MUST be built for the single brake/turn light bulb wiring.   When the turn signal lever is in the neutral (center) position, the internal contacts will connect both the right and the left b/t lamps.   The input to these contacts will be from the brake light switch.   When the lever is moved to the right (for instance), the contacts will still keep the connection from the brake light switch to the left b/t lamp, and will connect the right b/t lamp to the blinker.