Four Way Flashers -- How To with Pics

[patrickt]

This is basically nothing more than tapping in to five wires, and then wiring in a switch. The only difference is that you have to put a diode in to the five taps, and you have to wire in a flashing unit. You need to fuse it, too.

Here are the parts you'll need: Clockwise from upper left -- a flashing unit (electronic), a nice switch (this is a re-pop from the 1966 Mustang glove box switch), Posi-Taps (you'll need three), barrier diodes (you'll need five), in-line spade fuse (10 amp). In all of my pics, I used green wire for this job, and the pictures follow the narrative.



Use a Posi-Tap to tap in to the blue wire heading to your existing flasher (see the Posi-Tap in this pic?). Feed it 12 volts and see if your dashboard light comes on. It should.



Tap in to the green and yellow wires that are heading to the trailer relay that is behine the fast-blow fuse holder. Feed each 12 volts and see if the front and back lights comes on. You have to do this test one wire at a time. If you feed both at the same time, the rear lights will not come on.



Wire your in-line fuse to your flasher, and solder in your five diodes to five strands of wire making a note to have the little striped end of the diode (which goes to the load side of your circuit) be at an easily recognizable end. On my pics, the shorter end of the wire always will have the load side of the diode.



Place three of the diode wires in to the Posi-Taps, making sure the short "load end" of the diode is headed in the correct direction. Connect the other three ends of your wires together and then test your turn signals and brake signals to see if they are behaving normally. If they are not, then you screwed up the direction of the diodes. Now feed 12 volts to the three ends of the diode wires that are all twisted together. Your dash light should come on and the front turn signals should come on. The rear lights will not come on.



Now attach your remaining two diode wires to the passenger side terminals of the fast-blow fuse holder. Connect the two ends together and feed them 12 volts. Your rear lights should come on.



Connect all five wires together. Feed them 12 volts and all five lights (four turn signals and the dash light) should come on. Then leave the five wires twisted together, but without 12 volts feeding it, and check again that your turn signals and brake lights behave normally.



Feed a new line through your firewall below the starter solenoid. Have a ring eyelet on it that will attach to the master 50 amp circuit breaker. This will feed your emergency flasher circuit so that the circuit will work with the key on or off.



Wire your switch and run the wires out the back of the glove box, down to the passenger's feet area. (Note the cool adjustable rev limiter in the far back of my glove box.)



Test wire everything up. Put the fused flasher in line with the feed from the master circuit breaker, and run a temporary wire over to the five strands on the driver's side. Test it out! Then make sure your brake lights and turn signals work normally when the switch is turned off.



Assuming everything is working right, neaten it up and mount everything up under the dash. Zip tie your wires up and make sure everything is insulated properly.



Go back to your glove box and mount your switch. I was going to put it up on the top of the glove box, but instead decided to put it over on the right hand side.

[ERA Chas]

Yeah but how will you protect your 'real' signature???

[RodKnock]

Geez your car must break down a lot.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by RodKnock

Geez your car must break down a lot.

Well, I've broken down more than you have.

[lippy]

Nice write up Patrick. I think I'm going to try that, at some point.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by lippy

Nice write up Patrick. I think I'm going to try that, at some point.

Total, this was about a two hour job with a cost under $50. The majority of your time is spent sitting at the table soldering in the diodes to wires, soldering the wires to the switch, and soldering the fuse to the wires and flasher. Once you do that, especially if you're using Posi-Taps, it's about twenty minutes or so.

You know, I looked on the Internet to see if you could just order "pre-wired diodes," kind of like fusible-links, but you can't. Soldering in five diodes, then shrink tubing them, is half the total task. Once you do your "at the kitchen table" work, and armed with three Posi-Taps, you can knock this out in about a half hour. I had been planning on doing this for years, but when I ran across the 1966 Mustang Flasher Switch, I couldn't really put it off any longer.

[davids2toys]

Quite a write up. NICE
Unfortunately, I am more of a wrench turner, I hate electronic work and admittedly limited! I love the idea, but I will need help with this one, but will do it in the future. Too much other pressing stuff before this can happen.

For your next trick...any chance you have a fix so the brake lights work with the key off ...like a normal car? I have always thought was a safety hazard. there is nothing much I don't love about the ERA car, but this is one of them.
My last Cobra worked like a normal production car, brakes lights worked all the time, key on or off

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by davids2toys

For your next trick...any chance you have a fix so the brake lights work with the key off ...like a normal car? I have always thought was a safety hazard. there is nothing much I don't love about the ERA car, but this is one of them.
My last Cobra worked like a normal production car, brakes lights worked all the time, key on or off

If you have a mechanical fuel pump, just jumper across the left (meaning passenger) sides of fuses one and five. Those are the two top fuses on the right and left hand side of the fuse block. Then disconnect and just tape off the feed to fuse five. If you have an electric fuel pump then you'll need to place it on a switch.

EDIT -- Easy Test: Just remove fuse five and use a fused jumper wire with alligator clips to go from the passenger side of fuse one to the driver side of the empty fuse holder five. Leave that fuse out. That's an easy test to see if changing the feed will do what you want.

[rodneym]

Pat,
Between you your LED brakelights and now 'flasher show', you're just one small step away from...
Light Show - Club Cobra Photo Gallery
They'll make your pipes look like they're glowin'.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by rodneym

Pat,
Between you your LED brakelights and now 'flasher show', you're just one small step away from...
Light Show - Club Cobra Photo Gallery
They'll make your pipes look like they're glowin'.

Funny you should mention that... because, when the relay that controls the brake/turn lights is fed 12 volts to both of its turn signal feeds, at the same time, it politely back feeds 12 volts up through the brake light input wire. Sooooo, the result is that my nifty little third brake light also flashes when the switch is on. Thank you very much.

[rodneym]

You are irrespressible.
Nothing a diode couldn't fix, no?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by rodneym

You are irrespressible.
Nothing a diode couldn't fix, no?

Well, yes. If for some reason you didn't want that extra light flashing, a diode would certainly do the trick. Personally, if I'm using emergency flashers, I want every light I have flashing.

[rodneym]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Well, yes. If for some reason you didn't want that extra light flashing, a diode would certainly do the trick. Personally, if I'm using emergency flashers, I want every light I have flashing.

But it's the light above your head we're worried about illuminating.

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by rodneym

Pat,
Between you your LED brakelights and now 'flasher show', you're just one small step away from...
Light Show - Club Cobra Photo Gallery
They'll make your pipes look like they're glowin'.

The producers of the Fast & Furious movie series have already contacted Patrick about featuring his car in the next movie. The sticking points aren't the additional lights under the car, spoilers, rear wing, TV screen, loud stereo and dual NOS bottles. The producers want to repaint the car an actual color in the color sprectrum, but Patrick has objected. Not only does he like blending in with the scenery at a rock quarry, but he'd have to repaint his wheels to match the Trigo's color again.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by rodneym

But it's the light above your head we're worried about illuminating.

But this how-to was soooooooo good that even that ol' rat Chas and RodKnock couldn't really rag on me about it.

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by patrickt

But this how-to was soooooooo good that even that ol' rat Chas and RodKnock couldn't really rag on me about it.

Some of us are busy.

But I did forget to ask when the how-to for adding HID's, power steering, power windows (oops no windows, must add those too), air conditioning, power brakes, heated seats, NAVI, cup holders, arm rests, etc. will be forthcoming?

But most importantly, when will you be replacing that fugly coolant overflow thingee?

[rodneym]

Originally Posted by RodKnock

The producers of the Fast & Furious movie series have already contacted Patrick about featuring his car in the next movie. The sticking points aren't the additional lights under the car, spoilers, rear wing, TV screen, loud stereo and dual NOS bottles. The producers want to repaint the car an actual color in the color sprectrum, but Patrick has objected. Not only does he like blending in with the scenery at a rock quarry, but he'd have to repaint his wheels to match the Trigo's color again.

I thought all of Pat's pics are in black & white, and he colors in the lights.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by RodKnock

But most importantly, when will you be replacing that fugly coolant overflow thingee?

You mean the little candied sprinkles bottle? Never. It is a point of pride.

[ItBites]

Why? Just sayin'

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by patrickt

It is a point of pride.

You also think your Trigo's look like Halibrand's now. You have an over-developed sense of pride.