Electrical Nuts & Bolts: Flashy Flashers

[Im Not Spam]

I just installed some LED taillight and marker light bulbs on my fullsize Jeep since I had a couple of bulbs burn out and figured I’d upgrade while I was at it. Now there are times when the turn signals don’t work at all, or they flash really fast. I’ve been told a different flasher

More...

 

[TSB8C]

I replaced all my exterior lights with LEDs. I already had all the inside lights done previously (Dakota Digital gauges with LED indicators, LED courtesy lights under the dash, LED map lights in the rearview, etc). When I replaced all the exterior lights (tail/brake, side markers and front blinkers), no blinkers and no flashers. I replaced the blinker flasher unit in the fuse panel, still no blinkers. I then soldered 100 ohm resistors, one each, behind the front blinkers between the blinker wire (not the marker light wire) and the blinker housing (ground). That and a new electronic flasher in the fuse panel, now blinkers work fine. I then also replaced the flasher unit in the fuse panel for the emergency flashers with the same electronic unit as used for the blinkers. But still no emergency flashers. I then discovered that the polarity in the fuse panel is opposite for the blinker flasher unit and the emergency flasher unit. A quick polarity reverser adaptor and now it all works properly. The lights I used are 1157-A27-T bulbs for the front blinkers and 194-AHP5 bulbs for the front side markers, all from SuperbrightLEDs.com. These are auto-polarity reversing LED bulbs. I used a United Pacific 90650 flasher unit for the blinkers in the fuse panel and their 90652 unit for the emergency flashers. The 90652 is the exact same as the 90650, but for $1 more includes the polarity reversing adaptor plug. For reference, the taillights are from Maxhaul, # 80685. These are 38 LED units. With a slight trim of the mounting studs, they fit perfectly into the tail light guards (Smittybuilt # 8660) that used to house the old stock lights.