LED Turn signals erratic flashing

M

mleder

Senior Member
I have a 12 volt system with an alternator and and FS point less electronic ignition. My LED turn signals cycle on and off on a regular beat when the engine is off. When the engine is on they cycle at an erratic beat. They will signal traffic in either instance but it I do not like the erratic cycle. My system uses a electronic flasher for LED lights I bought from a Model A vendor. It has a three spade plug and lead that goes to ground. Incorporated into a simple lever turn signal unit with an incandescent monitor light on that unit. Power to signal unit is direct to the battery. For diagnosis I hooked a 12 volt incandescent light in place of the of one of LED signal lights. Same results. One friend has suggested that it could be ignition noise?. Could I have a failed flasher unit? Any help appreciated, my friend has heard of others with similar problem.
 
If a diode is bad in alternator it would introduce AC current into circuit.

Try disconnecting alt belt and run engine to see if problem is still there.
 
Benson, Thank you for the reply, before I do as you suggest - if I have a bad diode would't my alternator not work? It charges the battery as usual and the ammeter shows charge on start up and settles back to zero after a bit. This symptom has been with this car for a year and I've had no battery or power issues. The alternator is the wire one style.
 
Not sure what you mean about your lights flashing erratically. I put LED turn signals on my wife's roadster and the lights flash about twice as fast as normal but with a steady on and off cycle, even after adding resistors in the circuit. When following behind her car, the quick flashing LED's really get your attention; more than a normal cycle would. So, I left them alone, feeling it was safer that way from the tailgating idiots. If your's is truly erratic, that's another story and I agree worth looking into and correcting.

Glen
 
Had exact same problem with exact set up. Easy experiment, we removed the piazzo buzzer and changed out the fancy electronic flasher to a stock Bussman 550 12 volt one ($3). Now the system works properly with rear LED"S. Not sure which component caused the issue but we tried a new "electronic" flasher again with erratic result. Also, check for good ground from the flasher and the turn signal unit on the column .
 
Update on my erratic turn signal flashing. Erratic meaning each beat is not always evenly spaced. Took advise of dropping the alternator belt off of the engine to let it run with out the alternator causing a voltage irregularity. What I got is the same erratic beat. One of my friends suggested that it could be a result of ignition noise. I'm running an FS electronic ignition and LED signal lights with the electronic flasher made for LED use. I'm leaning towards the ignition noise theory since the signal lights will beat regular with the engine off. Further information is the signals are direct connection to battery positive terminal and direct grounding of signal stat as well as flasher with jumpers for testing purposes to battery negative terminal. Any other suggestions you may have to remedy issue would be appreciated. Any suggestion of ignition noise reduction other than returning to stock set up?.
 
Our thinking is that the electronic flasher may pick up some influence from the FS system, hence the successful change back in our case to a std. flasher.
 
Try a NAPA "el-13, (x) for power, (l) for load, and (p) for pilot lite. There is no Ground terminal.

This flasher will flash even without a load, uses a relay.
JB
 
And the winner is Jerry in Shasta for his "fix". The flasher he recommended works and the only real difference is the one that gave me trouble had a grounding wire manufactured into the flasher. The NAPA el-13 has no external ground and also does not have the click/click sound of the other one. I'm 100 % sure that electronic ignition upsets the other grounded version with some type of "noise". Thanks Jerry and I hope this helps others.
 
mleder said:
And the winner is Jerry in Shasta for his "fix". The flasher he recommended works and the only real difference is the one that gave me trouble had a grounding wire manufactured into the flasher. The NAPA el-13 has no external ground and also does not have the click/click sound of the other one. I'm 100 % sure that electronic ignition upsets the other grounded version with some type of "noise". Thanks Jerry and I hope this helps others.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's the electronic ignition that has anything to do with it. I tried one with and without LEDs I have the one wire alternator and it did the same thing you mentioned. Long story short I went down to O'Reilly and bought the least expensive 3 terminal flasher made for both LED and incandescent or combination. It has no ground wire on it. Was less than $8.00
 
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