LED front and rear turn signals

Yes I’ve got clear lenses in front, so it seemed to make sense to follow your lead. And the nice thing is now I have someone to blame, other than myself, if things go wrong! :+1::+1::+1::crazy_face:

Ok color me dumb. The rears are 1157. Can I simply connect to the front bulb on each side and it’ll taake care the the rear?

“The older I get, the better I used to be”

Should: same size bulb.

I had LEDs in Tweety’s stop/tails, and it was MUCH more visible, at night.

The other nice thing is typically around 10-15% of the load on the system wiring, and when your wiring is 50+ years old, that’s probably a good thing. Brighter lights, particularly in the rear on a Series 1 car with their smaller lights, and less load. Seems like a no brainer.

Now I’m wanting to find some LED’s for the headlights too!

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Yes. The turn signalsin the rear just activate one of the two filaments in that bulb so it acts just like a single filament bulb when you move that stalk. And remember the flasher is dumb. All it want to see is a load on line. It doesn’t care if the electricity it is interrupting is going to one bulb or two, or where they are, as long as there is enough load to cause the flasher to function as intended.

Ole started a good thread on that.

https://jag-lovers.com/t/original-h4-or-led-head-lights/373027/3

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True, if you don’t have to fit a “load equalizer resistor” as John apparently had to. It seems very strange to me (is it just me?) that you put in LEDs to save power, and then add a resistor to consume all that saved power? OK - the lights are brighter, but why didn’t the electronic flasher unit remove the need for a load resistor?

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:+1: Sounds good John. Thanks!

David
I think it’s an either / or situation. Change the flasher or do the in-line resisters. :thinking:

A couple of years ago, I was about to install the in-line resistors and then found out that there are l.e.d. flashers and there are l.e.d. flashers. Point being that it takes a flasher with an incredibly low milliampere rating to work. Something in the order of 20mA or so. Like this but with three prongs: https://www.delcity.net/store/LED-Flasher-Relay/p_748191.h_748663 I can’t find the purchase record of the one that worked for me but it was similar.

I ordered a flasher from Super Brights when I ordered the bulbs. But when John said he tried one from a local place, it didn’t work. Hopefully this one does and I don’t have to go the other route. Supposed to be here by the weekend and I’ll find out

Ill be doing the same: tried this on Tweety, and the “special” flasher I got for the LEDs didnt work, which is why I didnt use them.

EDIT: I tried the flasher with an auxiliary ground wires when connected, the turn signals worked constantly, irrespective of the arm position.

ILL give the Walker solution a try!

Both equalizers consume a total of 4 amps and of course that’s only when using the turn signals or 4 way flashers. Being just an occasional and then intermittent load I’m not really concerned about it.

My goal was brighter lights and I still have the benefit of brighter LED map, interior, brake, tail and front parking lights using few amps.

Next up, installing the LED headlights as soon as my bulbs arrive.

EDIT: Here is another reason LED bulbs might not work with LED flashers, although I don’t think what the article described was the problem.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/light-show-picking-right-turn-signal-flasher-leds/

Bob,

Thanks. I realize that. It just seems to me that adding load resistors is a kludge that negates some of the benefits of LEDs - like fitting a low flush toilet, but then having to flush it twice. Hopefully someone who has got an LED flasher that works can tell us all which one, and the LEDs it worked with, so we can avoid the double flush…:grinning:

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With that information I’d likely remove the equalizers and replace the flashers. Don’t forget one needs two flashers, one for the turn signals and one for the 4-way emergency flashers.

it’s no different when you change to LEDS in your house and the old style incandescent dimmer doens’t work with the LEDS. sometimes you have to change/replace more than just the bulb, unfortunately.

for me energy savings is not even on my list. I am in it for brighter lights, and if they drew more current to be bright I would still install them.

I am only replacing rear lights, so if the OEM flasher works with those and the incandescents up front it will be great. if not, I will shop for a flasher. still cheap in the grand scheme of things.
and yes, I would skip the resistors and find a flasher that works.

as for the low flow toilets… I agree with you completely.

I used the Superbright led bulbs in all my running lights. The turn signals Would not work with several different led flashers. I put the resistors in and now the signals flash very slowly with the dash signal light only working occasionaly. I hated the install of the resistors, and am still hoping to make it all work without them.

Were any of the flashers from Super Bright?

the CF13GL-02 from superbright does NOT work in my 69 S2. doesn’t work in place of the FL5 or the 4 way flasher. just a heads up.

but with just rear signals and using the incandescents up front my FL5 works, but flashes fast.
working on plan B

Yes, exactly the same issue I experienced. In fact, the 4-way flashers on mine worked with two LEDs in front and one in the back, with an incandescent bulb in the 4th position.