led tail light confusion

[Major Tom]

I am thinking about a led tail light install on my 66, and I am a little confused. I have checked out several of the vendors and they all seem to have a different solution for the flasher problem. one says use load equalizers, one says use a no fault flasher and one says use a led flasher with a ground wire. what is best and why so many versions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cs_88]

All I did was replace my stock thermal flasher for an electronic one. Think I got it at Napa for $12ish.

 

[Cook76]

I used the rear panel led board kit - I believe from toms.
Installed the everything with the supplied load equalizers didn't change the flasher. I didn't care for the front leds, felt the reg bulbs were much brighter from all angles. So I swapped them back to stock and removed the load equalizers. The rear led boards are crazy bright and are a huge improvement. So bright you can use them to some degree to see when backing up at night.

I don't think the single led bulbs would be a great choice for the back esp if they are like the fronts I tried.

 

[rbwamsley]

I recently installed the Tom's rear led panels also. All I did was swap out my flasher for a no load flasher. Only issue I see is when the blinker is first turned on, there is a little mini flasher before the normal blinking starts. You have to really watch it to notice. Maybe this is what the load equalizers fix?

 

[BigBlueBronco71]

Just installed the Tom's board too and agree they are crazy bright, much better piece of mind nobody will run into me.

I left the front flashers as regular bulbs since I think they are bright enough and didn't have to use a resistor or anything.

 

[hucklburry rev2]

You could also search for Dusty's write up on here, he just did led front signals and rear tail lights, there is a pic of his flasher and what he did, he also has a headlight write up with trucklites.

 

[Major Tom]

All I did was replace my stock thermal flasher for an electronic one. Think I got it at Napa for $12ish.

thanks for the response. I assume I will need 2 new flashers if I want the hazards to work also

 

[rbwamsley]

thanks for the response. I assume I will need 2 new flashers if I want the hazards to work also

Yes, you will.

 

[Pa PITT]

BigBlue or someone else can you postup some pictures of your rears.
I TRIED THIS ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO but didn't like the lights they weren't bright enough.
Then I bought some of the 1157 LED Bulbs I didn't like them either.
.. So I'm back to just 1157s BUT I'd still like to have some nice bright rear lights.
I've even bought 2 LED 2X4 inch truck or trailer light & was going to place them into some cut up 66 rear cups. Then fiberglass or Epoxy them into the cups. Then replace the with new Red Lens.
... But then some friend came out as I was working on this project & ''BURST MY BUBBLE'' HE SAID ''WHY'' It's just an old turd farm truck that never goes to town. Stop wasting your money on it.
... So That's where my project sets today.
... & I'm really kind of waiting to see if one of our vendors will offer up some lens
that have more of the new red reflection material inside. I want my rear reds to have the late model Mustang look .. More diversion.

 

[Jdgephar]

There are many ways to fix the LED turn signal issue. The problem is that LED bulbs do not draw very much current like the filament bulbs do. The larger current is what makes the bi-metallic element in the old flashers heat up and cause the lights to blink. To solve this, you can install load resistors. They will increase the current draw to something close to the filament bulb to make the old flasher work. Another solution is to use the electronic flasher instead of the old bi-metallic ones. Either solution will work. My personal opinion is to use the electronic flasher. No need to do any work to the wiring that way.

LED bulbs are a whole other discussion. I settled on the Sylvania Zevo ones for now. (1157 in red)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Broncobowsher]

Dummy loads (adding resistors) is a poor way to get around the problem. Now you just installed heating elements that need thermal management. You are still stressing all the wiring with the high current load. Still have voltage drop from the amp draw. Really no benefit of an LED except you can say you have LED lights.

A replacement flasher made for LED lights is the correct solution.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for all of the input. I ordered the led tail light boards and a led flasher from CJ pony parts. $ 77 total, free shipping. I will let you know how the work out