Signal flasher upgrade easy to do & what a difference

[Steve76063]

I installed the EL13 flasher, and 4-ways worked great, flashing inside and out.  But, I had an issue with the inside indicator light glowing, and many times flashing on its own (without the turn signals on).  The flashing was only on the indicator, not the outside lights.

I'm an electronics tinkerer, so I checked out the system and discovered that there's 12 volts on the P terminal (the one that goes to the indicator lamp) when nothing's plugged into it.  With the indicator plugged in, it dropped to about 3 volts and the lamp glowed and sometimes the flasher would flash!

By trial and error, I added a 10 Watt resistor (I wanted to make sure I didn't burn out the resistor) with 22 Ohms in series with the indicator lamp.  The lamp still glows, but is dimmer, and I haven't noticed it blinking on its own yet.  I also tried a 47 Ohm resistor, and the lamp didn't glow at all, but when it flashed, it was dimmer than before.  If I still have the phantom flash, I'll change to either the 47 Ohm, or something in the middle like a 33 Ohm.  Here's what my connection now looks like:

[Spyke]

On 1/30/2018 at 11:22 AM, mofares said:

Little confused here, does one need the El13L1 flasher with 3 prong adapter or will the CF13GL-02 LED Bulb Electronic Flasher from Superbright work? Thanks. 

 

I personally used the superbrightLEDs one. Everything works except the dash indicator for me.

[jp5Touring]

I installed the NAPA flasher EL13  when I updated my Euro turn signals  with two wire bulb socket.

Everything works as it should. Used a headlight connector and color coded the wire's best I could.

 

[Roeland-02]

I did the upgrade in the winter. now that i start driving again i noticed its blinks on the dashboard when i turn my signal lights on but the doesn't blink outside, If I move the signal switch halve way it seems to work. hazard lights work fine.

[PaulTWinterton]

56 minutes ago, Roeland-02 said:

i noticed its blinks on the dashboard when i turn my signal lights on but the doesn't blink outside

 

You may have your signals crossed.  Wah!

 

It could be as simple as the connections at the flasher are incorrectly attached.  Check the pics in my post on pg8 of this thread to confirm that your connections are correct (if you are using an EL13).

 

 

[JMMcR75]

Similar to Paul Winterton’s 1/1/2019 post, I decided to upgrade my 1974 SquareLight 2780988 tail lights to LEDs by ClassicAutoLEDs, provided by BluntTech.  I highly recommend these lights - the results are amazing, and visibility is much improved.  With the stock flasher relay, LED taillights, LED dash indicator light, and incandescent 1157 front turn signals, the dash indicator would flash once only, but outside lights worked just fine.  With the emergency flasher, everything worked fine.

 

Following BluntTech’s advice, I checked to make sure we had a good ground on the front turn signals, and that the turn signal wires were connected to the high wattage side of the 1157 front turn signal bulb, but there was no change.  I decided not to change the dash indicator back to incandescent since I like the way the LED idiot lights look.  So the next step was to install an electronic flasher.

 

I followed a combination of Paul Winterton’s 1/1/2019 photo, and that from jp5Touring 6/4/2019 above.  I used the jp5Touring relay/headlight socket, and wired the pigtails with spade connectors to the vehicle relay socket as shown on Paul’s photo:

#49 Violet-Green (Power from hazard switch) to relay pole “X”

#49a Yellow-Green (to lights) to relay pole “L”

#C White-Black (to instrument indicator light) to relay pole “P”

#31 Brown (Ground) Spare

 

With LED taillights, LED indicator light, and incandescent front signal lights, I plugged in the suggested Tridon EL-13 (equivalent to NAPA EL-13) flasher.  Everything worked fine, and no misbehaving lights!

 

I then decided to upgrade the front turn signals to dual brightness LED bulbs (SiriusLED 35W 2835 Amber).  They are kind of long, but I found they could fit in the fixture.  Then none of the signal lights worked with the EL-13 flasher.  I exchanged the flasher relay for a Grote 44890 (Equivalent to NAPA EL-13L1 or to CEC EF-33RL).  I connected the flasher’s fourth contact pigtail to ground like SpuriousPseudo’s 9/3/2018 picture, but to the vehicle socket #31.  Everything now works great, with no misbehaviors.  I zip-tied the result up so it was out of the way and not rattling.  So for my ‘74 it looks like LEDs all around and a EL-13L1 flasher works with no issues, and visibility is hugely improved.

 

Thank you to those who have worked through this and shared their experience!

[Roeland-02]

I got it working. After replacing the relay i still had a problem with my left signal lights. The control light on the dash was blinking but not my blinkers outside.

I took the handle apart and cleaned the contacts with steel whole.  

[Robert Kyle]

Worked for me.

 

Turn signal and hazard completely dead.

 

Cheap easy fix. 

[roadhog0]

Mine semi died today. When the turn signals arent activated the dash indicator lightly blinks. Time to get another cheap one....

[redline8]

I want to thank JMMcR75.  His recommendations rescued me from two weeks of head-scratching frustration.  Lights, signals, hazard, dashlights all work as they should.

[JMMcR75]

You are very welcome. As I noted in the post, I got a lot of tips from others on the forum who had addressed the matter before me. I work by trial-and-error, but mostly error.

[BAN_M2C]

Thanks for all the previous input on this thread.

 

My problem started after I put in LEDs for the front signals. Had done all the rears and had no issues at all. After adding fronts ,y front signals would only work while lights were off. As soon as I turned on lights and tried to use signals only rears would work while fronts would stay static. 

 

Tried multiple flasher relays listed on this thread and as others mentioned some relays didn’t work for them. I tried the EL13 and nothing.

 

Went with the three prong which also has a ground and it resolved everything. As reported by others, only negative effect is that dash light flashes once or twice after the turn stalk is disengaged. I can live with that!
 

 

[npdw]

I am a bit lost in this topic. I see two candidates:

- cec industries ef33

- cec industries ef33RL

 

do both work properly? My setup is without LED. A lot of the comments are from people with LED....

Edited August 5, 2020 by npdw

[irdave]

18 hours ago, npdw said:

I am a bit lost in this topic. I see two candidates:

- cec industries ef33

- cec industries ef33RL

 

do both work properly? My setup is without LED. A lot of the comments are from people with LED....

 

Without LED it doesn't matter.  The problem comes with the LED lights.

[RobD]

So I am back after three years!  I installed 2x LED 1157 BAY15D bulbs for front turn signal and they worked for last couple of years UNTIL I installed a new turn signal mechanism in the column. A month after new turn signal assembly in column suddenly front turn signals are not working again.  ?  Symptoms include (1) front running lights work when light selector is in park or headlights on and (2) when I turn signal indicator in either direction the front turn signal lights will momentarily brighten (but not flash).  Returned to frustration.