LED TURN Signals Not Working Problem solved 25 Sep

[fordguy]

Reading thru some threads this morning. Indicators do not work either. Hazards work. So I test for voltage at the lights and work backwards?

 

[Broncobowsher]

Does everything work correctly with regular bulbs installed?

Grounds are usually cause other lights to do odd things. The 1157 bulb design is 2 lights in a single bulb and share that single ground. Lose that ground, and the light will find other grounds going through the other circuits. Add in LED that can do all sorts of non-conventional bulb things. Full brightness with only a couple of volts, sensitive to direction of power flow. And recently have heard of some LEDs that when installed in a perfectly good circuit will back feed the other circuit without being a grounding issue. The isolation in the circuit board in the bulb fails

Since the LEDs are an unknown. The circuit was not originally designed for LEDs. Confirm everything in the circuit works as designed before modifying.

 

[SLOWnEASY]

Reminds me of a question I sometimes had to ask from the support staff on my last job when they had a failure they couldn't figure out.

"What changed?"

Are the LED's new to the system or were they previously working well and suddenly just stopped? Was anything new added? Even if is seems it might not be related?

 

[fordguy]

The only thing changed was me wiring up new speakers in front. Nothing else changed.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Start looking at the under dash wiring for something you bumped loose.

 

[ba123]

They were working normally before you put in the speakers?

Always a chance your flasher went out at the same time but any chance the speaker screws caught a wire? Blew a fuse when you grounded something by accident?

If the hazards work, you could try swapping the flasher and see if any change.

 

[fordguy]

I have been poking around. I installed a new flasher for the turn signals with a different ground, did not change anything.

 

[ba123]

Stock harness or aftermarket/which one?

Steering column stock or aftermarket?

 

[Fastracer]

I have had good luck using these.

 

[fordguy]

Stock harness or aftermarket/which one?

Steering column stock or aftermarket?

Isidit aftermarket

 

[fordguy]

Going to try incandescent bulbs. I think my issue is LED related.

 

[ntsqd]

After finally figuring out why the Cruise in the FSB didn't work I talked to one of the MSEE's at work about what I'd found, and he confirmed it. LED's don't need much power to operate. Compound that with most switches aren't really all that great, they 'leak' a little voltage into the circuit. With an incandesent bulb that leakage is of no consequence as it's not enough to power the light and no amps flow.

With an LED in the place of the incandescent it is enough power for the lights to glow slightly and the amps will flow. In my case the Cruise portion of the computer saw those amps flowing and concluded that brakes were on since that was the leaking' circuit. Brakes on kills the Cruise.

I went back to incandescents, but the resistors posted above are the other option.

 

[DirtDonk]

I have been poking around. I installed a new flasher for the turn signals with a different ground, did not change anything.

What does “a different ground “ mean?
Is this a special LED flasher with a separate ground wire?

 

[ba123]

What does “a different ground “ mean?
Is this a special LED flasher with a separate ground wire?

Yes, those LED flashers need ground. I have the same ones.

Also, LED bulbs need the correct polarity whereas it doesn’t matter for an incandescent.

 

[jscheier]

I have had good luck using these.

Ditto. My LEDs would not work without the newer LED flasher. I think I had to use the reverse polarity portion of it as well. Now flashers and hazards work on my '69 with LEDs all over the place

 

[fordguy]

What does “a different ground “ mean?
Is this a special LED flasher with a separate ground wire?

Yes, it is the two prong with ground.

 

[fordguy]

Ditto. My LEDs would not work without the newer LED flasher. I think I had to use the reverse polarity portion of it as well. Now flashers and hazards work on my '69 with LEDs all over the place

What do you mean by reverse polarity portion?

 

[ba123]

I have the same flasher and they come with an adapter to flip the polarity. Led bulbs are polarity sensitive whereas incandescent bulbs are not.

reversing the polarity using the adapter, I think is the same as swapping the positive and negative to be correct.

 

[ba123]

Any update? Tried reversing the polarity?

I am confused though since at first you said nothing changed...were you on LEDs already and then they stopped working once you wired the speakers?

 

[joshua]

I dealt with this not long ago. I had to broken wires in the harness and one was feeding both. I had to cut off most of the tape to find it. Idk if you’re having the same issue or not tho.