Turn signal dilemma

[CarMichael Angelo]

Hey all,

Thought I'd stop banging my head and ask for some help w/ regard to my tail lights/turn signal issues.

As most know, I now have 68 taillight buckets. The 68 uses 1 bulb for park/run/brake/ts, and the fox uses two bulbs to accomplish this.
Originally I ran the park/run (brown) on one lead, the brake light wire (red/lt green) on another, w/ a separate ground wire ran to the chassis. The lights worked fine.

I figured that I had to add another bulb and socket to the metal housing and drilled a 1" hole to allow a 1 wire self grounding (to the metal bucket) socket and wired each one to the respective T/S wires.

It didn't work. It would only light up, but would not flash. I exchanged the socket w/ the old two wire piece I cut from the factory Fox harness and it flashed..slowly (about 1-1.5 second(s) between flashes). I tried to rehook the one wire socket back up and even clipped a ground wire onto the metal socket body and grounded the body to the battery. Still only lights up, no flash.

WHAT THE HELL???

The metal taillight housing w/ now two holes in it.

View attachment 175760

The old T/S socket

View attachment 175761

The old and new, smaller light next to it.

Why does the one bigger bulb work and not the smaller one? Anybody?
The bulb does light up, it just doesn't flash.

 

[stangsta89]

The smaller bulb probably doesn't have enough wattage to heat the element in the flasher. Heating the flasher bimetal strip is what causes the flasher to work

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Thanks

I was hoping that it might be something like that. Are there flashers that can be had based on different loads? So I can match the the flasher to the wattage draw.

 

[jrichker]

Try this cheap, simple fix first. Put a small hose clamp around the bare metal part of the new bulb socket. Strip 1/2" of the insulation off a length of 16 gauge insulated wire, spread it out like a fan and then tin it with solder. Stick the tinned end under the hose clamp and tighten it down good. Crimp a ring terminal on the other end of the wire. Ground the end with the ring terminal to clean shiny bare metal.

If that does not fix it, try to find an electronic flasher. They are not dependent on current draw to make a constant flash rate.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Already grounded the socket directly to the battery. Still did not work. Electronic flasher? Where would I get one?

 

[90stang5speed]

I might be wrong on this one but, I think 18 wheelers use them for the opposite reason (lots of lights & too much load) I think we sold them when I worked at autozone. Some were marked as thermal & the one I'm thinking of was marked as heavy duty. A stock flasher for a car equiped with factory LED turn signal lights might be an option too. Dumb question but, do you have the front ones hooked up yet? if not, that might give you more load.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Yeah, I think J richker solved the problem. I found a small bulb to fit the socket that was alot higher wattage (closer to the big bulb) and it started working. Still too slow as far as the flashing goes, but I'll solve that w/ the electronic flasher (I did see a buttload of them at Advance).

The only "issue" that remains now is that the right indicator light in the dash (or maybe it's the left)
When I turn on the left signal the left indicator lights. When I turn on the right, both indicator lights flash.

If that is the only issue I have to deal with then I'll live w/ it for now.

But the front and rear T/S lights flash. That is the important thing.

 

[90stang5speed]

Without a boubt, J richker is the man when it comes to electrical issues. I was kind of wondering though, If the 69 used 1 bulb for stop, turn, & tail, how did that work? It seems that there would have been a broblem using the brakes & turn signal at the same time.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

To tell you the truth It was more than I wanted to concern myself with. I was hoping that I could tie the brake and T/S lights together, but that made the front turn signals light up when you stepped on the brake. So I just got another bulb and drilled the Xtra hole in the housing. The higher wattage bulb made it work again, but slowly. The Electronic flasher I bought today made it work perfectly. ( for some reason the T/S indicator problem also went away when I installed the new flasher)

So, No more turn signal dilemma.