LED front and rear turn signals

here is the deal, the CF is set up for completely different wiring, ie: +12 and loads are on different pins. IT will work but it requires jumpers AND a ground wire, once done it flashes nicely, but this is NOT a drop in replacement, I am working on it now and will post more when I figure out a permanent fix.

So it’s the problem discussed in the Hot Rod link I posted above? I thought about rewiring the sockets the flasher go in, but didn’t want to alter the factory wiring scheme.

From that Article:

In many older vehicles with original, OEM reproduction, or aftermarket dash harnesses, there was no indexing required on the flasher can connection. A standard flasher would work with power “in or out” applied on either terminal of the flasher can. “No load” LED flasher cans are directional, meaning that the “X” and an “L” terminals on the bottom of the flasher can have a specific connection required. The “X” terminal on the flasher can is “power-in” from your fuse panel or power source, and the “L” terminal on the flasher can is “load-out” to the switch or lamp assemblies. These connections must be maintained in order for an LED flasher to operate.

If your harness does not have the feed and output wires oriented as above, you must switch them at your connection prior to installing the new LED flasher can.

compared to LED bulb to modern LED BAR lamp, check out the results , fantastic and super bright with more speed, and my front units directional and hazard flashers.
two times cars coming up behind, slammed brakes squelling and yelling no directinals, almost rearended me!
i did not need any funky resistors or anything extra, hooked directly to factory wireing, has built in COB!
tried to load a video , but wont load! so pix

..
these LED bulb did not work mounted in the Factory place for directionals pre He XJS, could not see them in bright sunlight!

Well… I am guilty of not reading your article ( yet ). but yes. you could swap the wires in the plug as one way of doing things, but you will have two problems.
if you look at my notes you can see that the P pin operates the lights in the dash and the L pin are the turn signals. you need to tie those together to get all the lights.
SECOND. the LED flasher needs a ground wire or it will not work no matter how you swap the dash socket wires.

So,. . . until someone identifies flasher units that work without alteration to the vehicle wiring I’ll just lead the load equalizers in place.

an update on my progress.

I ended up sacrificing a non working FL5 to make a case for the corrected CF flasher.
I have an inside pic I rather not post because I got the wires backwards the first time, they must use the same phenolic base plate for several items as the L terminal on the outside is marked B inside, ie they are reversed, which is exactly the problem with the new flasher.

SO… I opened the new flasher, and an old one, de-soldered and cut things until I had just a base plate and flasher unit. Then I pigtailed wires as described above to the corrected terminals. You still need a ground pig tail to make the new unit operate.

my goal was to make this work without changing anything in the car.

final result is the flasher works nicely now. but it was several hours work. is it worth it? not sure.
I replaced the brake light bulbs as well and over all these are much much brighter than incandescents.

BUT… I still cant put them up front because the 4 way flasher needs old school bulbs to work. am I going to buy another relay and fiddle fart around to make that work… probably not. hopefully someone else stumbles on a drop in unit.

on another note, as I am doing all this all of the sudden one of the 1157 bulbs stops working on both elements… swapped taillights, still nothing. cursed at it a few times. took it to the work bench and tried a power supply at 14 volts… nothing. more cursing. try again. and it works. not sure why. I didnt tap or pound it, but did try shaking it after it starting working, didn’t faze it. BUT, it leaves me a little uncertain of their reliability. as they say, “We’ll see what happens”. but I will be more vigilant in my pre-drive checks to see if I have lights now.

the good news is. the modified flasher unit doesnt care if it has LEDs or incandescent bulbs to operate. So I will add the replaced bulbs to my ever expanding trunk full of spare parts I lug around.

sheesh… wheres my Lagavulin

I would suggest that as the easiest way to get them to work at this point.

It’s funny. I’ve been gone all day, running over to Taos this morning through the canyon, which btw Paul, has 94 turns over 17 miles. That doesn’t count the 22 turns over 2 miles on this side of the pass to get to the canyon. It’s a fun drive especially if no one is in front of you!

But the bulbs and flasher came this afternoon after I returned. Last night I downloaded the wiring diagram for the new flasher, and was just going to post the wiring differences comparing USA schematic. But Bob you beat me to the punch😁. And I’m glad. with all the trouble to redo the cans to get a ground, I’ll go the load resistor route as well. Still have to cut wires either way, but not rearrange a whole flasher.
Thanks!

I am curious though, I see you grounded the can, but Isn’t pin 31 the ground? And it appears then that all sides somehow work off of 49a.

Larry, the black wire isnt attached to can, I drilled a hole in the top and it just runs out there.

pin 31 on the NEW flasher needs ground there, but that plug in the CAR is actually the +12v.

if you just used the top pin, 49A as the output you would only be powering the little green indicators in the dashboard.

the 49 pin on the new flasher is where the car expects the output to the turn signals.

there is no provision for ground in the CAR socket. so I put the ground under a bolt.

What I am finding is all the Low power or LED flashers are a small relay controlled by a transistor circuit vs the old school way of heating a bi-metal wire with bulb current. therefore they all need a ground.

FYI, my hand drawing is looking at both relays from the bottom.
SO, if you were looking at the socket with the same orientation, your +12v will be on the right and the output to the four signals on the left, and the dash lights at the top. There is only one hot wire to the lamps in the dash as the turn signal stalk grounds the correct light for the direction you are selecting.

19%20PM

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Nice job Bob! Has anyone here tried the LED Flasher unit sold by XKs?

It appears that it’s intended to be plugged into the existing flasher socket, which means no ground…

In the end, this might be the cure!

It does look to answer the question of plug n play, the schematic on the relay shows it works off the original three terminals. I will be ordering one to try out.

Bob,

Thanks. Please let us know how it turns out. I’m considering upgrading to LEDs, but all these stories of incompatible components give me the only excuse I need to justify my luddite laziness…:grinning:

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Triple ditto: I want plug-n-play, not a redesign!

Will await reports.

Hey Guys,
A little late to the party on this topic, but I installed the LED taillight package from XK’s and stayed with incandescent bulbs for the front on my 1967 OTS. Only thing I had to do was replace the 2 flasher relays (one for the rear lights and one for the hazard flasher) with a EL 13 unit from Napa. Just plugged in to the receptacles and all was good.

Jay,

Thanks for that data point. As you left the front with incandescents, it does mean that the EL 13 may not work with LEDs “all-round”, but it’s still good to know. Looking at the spec of the EL 13, it has the same pinout as our existing flasher modules (X, P, L), so it’s starting to look like the unit that Bob used (with Power, Ground, and one terminal for all LEDs and warning lights) is a very different animal. Can those who’ve tried “electronic flasher units” and failed to get them to work with LEDs identify which units they tried? It seems that all electronic flasher units are not created equal…

call me a gluten for punishment, but I ordered one of the NAPA EL-13’s as well.
should be in store tomorrow for pickup. I will try it with LEDs in all four corners and as a turn flasher and a 4 way flasher. The pinout is correct so I am curious as to its operation. I will more than likely saw off the top and investigate the circuit.

I will write up a summary with my findings and the exact bulbs I used. But probably under a new topic heading to make future searching a little easier

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Thanks much Bob. We appreciate the work you have put in on this. I’ll hold off buying anything until you get back with the results. As I went through looking for any other electronic flashers, all the ones for modern cars seemed to have different pin setups than what the Jags have, so hopefully the EL-13 and/or the one from XKs will work.

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