installed little 3 volt turn signals, now no flashing (1 Viewer)

[slickrock]

Installed a pair of little trucker lights as turn signals. They are only 3 volts so that means my turn signal relay reads it as a dead light and does not blink.

I know I need to out in some type of diode or something to trick my blinker into thinking the lights are 12volt. Can anyone direct me to the right doohickey?

 

[CHOCODILE]

Electronic flasher; hit the google.

 

[slickrock]

um, thanks, but how does an electronic flasher differ from the one I have now.

 

[slickrock]

how many pins does a stock 40 flasher relay have? does it look like this? my realy is huge with only a T elctrical fitting. From super bright leds, here are my options. Any one use one of these in thier rigs? http://www.superbrightleds.com/flashers.htm

 

[bsilva132]

you need a heavy duty electronic flasher as it flashed no matter what the load is. Any partrs store should have them right next to the stock/regular flashers. I used two side marker lights on my bib as blinkers and the HD flasher did the trick.

 

[malcb]

um, thanks, but how does an electronic flasher differ from the one I have now.

"Standard" flasher use a bimetalic strip that heats up with the current flow when the bulbs are lit, when it gets hot enough it disconnects, that turns the bulbs off and the strip cools and reconnects, cycle starts over again. Electronic one use a simple timer circuit, downside is you don't know if a bulb has gone.

EDIT: Think the flasher in my '75 just has two connections?

 

[FJROSS]

When I switched to led's, I used the Toyota replacement flasher that comes with a adapt. harness to go from your existing. I think it was around $25.00.

 

[njshofear]

When I switched to led's, I used the Toyota replacement flasher that comes with a adapt. harness to go from your existing. I think it was around $25.00.

where did you get that from? Link?

 

[mikelypp]

stick with the original flasher... it's a tank. What you need to do is pop off the cover and grab a screw driver and a pair of pliers. You're going to see a set of contacts that act as the 'flash on/flash off' the trick is to bend the contacts so they 'bounce' at whatever voltage/amperage you have as a load. It's a low tech fabulous solution. With the proper bending you can even adjust the rate of flashing. I replaced my rustbucket oem taillights with led stop/tail/signal lamps and this fix has worked for me for the last several years.
Good luck!

 

[mikelypp]

One more thing... I would make sure that the LED lights you're installing are in fact 12V. They will turn different colors and eventually dark if they're 3V. the reason you're not flashing is, the load (Current<>Amps) through the flasher isn't enough to heat the bimetal 'spring' in the flasher like -malcb- stated. Incandescent light bulbs require 50 to 100x the amperage than their LED counterpart, so the current is quite a bit less than it used to be, causing the flashing to not flash. =)

 

[kyot4x4]

I used LED lights for my signals and had to put a no load electronic flasher most places that sell LED lights sell the flashers. The no load flasher is a timed switch not a load activated switch like a regular flasher.

kyle

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

A friend helped me with this situation. To use the electronic flasher he fabbed a simple adapter harness (two wires) from the factory "T" plug to the electronic flasher. Zip-tied in place. This completely bypasses the OE flasher unit.

Regards,

Alan

 

[Coolerman]

They are indeed very robust, but OEM 1971 flashers do not have 'bimetallic' springs. Their operation is quite complicated in comparison to the American bi-metallic flasher.

The OEM unit has two sets of contacts and the on-off cycle and timing of the flash is determined by a combination of a capacitor/resistor circuit and dual twin coil solenoids.

Normally there has to be at least .7 amps flowing in the primary L1 solenoid circuit before it will even trigger the cycle. Adjusting the primary points gap will indeed allow it to trigger at slightly lower currents but you can trigger a high speed oscillating effect if you get them too close together.

I have drawn up a schematic of how this flasher is actually wired internally. If I can get some time I plan to make a web page describing how I think it works.

 

[slickrock]

I will jsut order from superbright leds. Thanks guys. I'll have to modify my T connectors to work, but shouldn't be a problem.

 

[FJROSS]

where did you get that from? Link?

Ccot has or had them listed in the electrical section and I got mine from my local Toyota Parts store. Sorry, not that good a attaching a link. I have the receipt at work if you would like the part # on Monday.

 

[slickrock]

Actually yes I would like the part number. 30 bucks after shipping was a bit much for me.

 

[FJROSS]

Actually yes I would like the part number. 30 bucks after shipping was a bit much for me.

I believe the Toyota part # is 81980-12h04. The part list for $33.65 but I was getting around a 20% discount from the local Toyota dealer that I buy my parts from.