I was wondering if anyone has installed LED bulbs in their front turn signals on a 96-98 that uses the 1156 style bulb. I got some from VLEDS and they will not work. I got some wire and tested the bulbs by connecting directly to the plug behind the housing and they work, but when I install them in the housing I get nothing.

I was going to try them in my friends 99, but the new front end uses the 7440 style bulbs. So has anyone successfully but LEDs in their front signals on the old front end?

try putting the bulb in the other way (rotating it 180 degrees).

i tried this when i did mine, and it still didnt work, as they is only one contact nob on the back of the builb. what you will have to do is swap the wires going into the socket housing, just unpin them, and switch which holes they go in and you will be fine, the only down side is with LEDs you will have the hyperflash issue unless you but resisters in and that kinda defeats the purpose of LEDs. i took mine out after about 6months and said screw it... the stock bulb will work with the wires either way so no need to repin the wires again

Isn't the good old 1156 a single contact bayonet bulb?

If it is, rotating it will not change the polarity. Tip and base will still connect the same way. Assuming the issue is polarity, you would need to reverse the plug that goes to the socket, if that is possible, or swap the wires before the plug (cut and splice). I have a '99 so I can't be sure on this.

On an 1156, tip should be positive and base should be negative (ground). I would assume all LED's are made that way too. I would take a test light from chassis ground to the socket and it should light when you touch the tip contact. Then connect to 12v+ (at the battery or elsewhere) and see if it lights when you touch the body of the socket (base contact). I bet it fails this test. Either polarity is reversed, or one of tip or base is not getting hot or ground, respectively.

EDIT: thekid snuck in front of me while I was typing. Yeah, what he said^^^^

I finally figured out it was the polarity in the plug. I swapped the wires and it is all working now. I wired in some old incandescent bulbs inside the bumper to act as resistors so it doesnt hyperflash either. The pure yellow looks much better than the orange.