Turn Signal Modifications

Many thanks to Drake Daum of Dayton, OH, who offered some guidance on a couple mods for my turn signals.  Drake has a unique modification to his turn signals and after seeing his, I got some ideas slightly different than his.

Outer Compartment Turn Signal Mod:

There are small compartments on the outer sections of the front turn signal housings which were made to hold bulbs, but for some reason were not utilized in the US.  To brighten the turn signal indication as well as brighten the parking lights, I wanted to add bulbs to these compartments.

Adding bulbs to these areas requires some crafty work.  The better you are with a Dremel, the more likely this mod will turn out clean.  Here's what I had to do:

1) Cut out the opening on the turn signal housings for the new bulb: There is a raised circular rib; just cut along the outer part of this rib.  A hole will be left as shown below (the hole on the left):

2) Make an adapter to hold the bulb socket harness:  An adapter needs to be made to keep the bulb from sticking into the housing too far and contacting the clear lens.  A 1" inner diameter PVC pipe (or a 3/4" PVC pipe coupling) works nicely.  With a little patience and a Dremel with a proper bit, the "L" shape sections can be cut out from the PVC.

3) Obtain a bulb socket from either a junk yard (get another bulb socket like the one holding the original turn signal bulb), or purchase a similar one like I did from Autozone or other autoparts store.  This will be what dictates the cuts in step 2.  Below shows the socket with a test bulb (the one shown is clear, but I used amber for the real thing).  The size bulb to use is a 1157.

4) Glue the adapter to the turn signal housing.  I used PVC all purpose cement; basically the same glue used to bond PVC pipes together.  It sets up quick and seems to be pretty strong.

5) Connect the new wiring harness to the existing wires:

Black = Ground

Green = Turn Signal

Red = Parking Light

6) Finishing touches: I wrapped black electrical tape around the adapters to try to seal them from moisture once the socket is in place.

7) Finished product: The outer compartments now light up with the inner compartments.  At the time of taking the picture, I noticed that the inner bulbs where pretty old and about half of the amber paint had flaked off.  It was late so I put off a trip to the store for new bulbs at a later time.

The lights are much brighter.  I'm pleased... maybe this mod along with the Side Marker Mod below will help others see my turn signal when I'm on the road.

Side Marker Turn Signal Mod:

The idea behind this mod is to make the front side markers to flash in phase with the normal turn signals and 180 degrees out of phase with the turn signals when the parking lights are on.

This turns out to be a really easy mod.  All that is required is to cut the BLACK wire going to the side marker, tape off the harness side of the cut and attach the side marker side of the cut to the GREEN turn signal wire going to the turn signal housing.  Everything can be done right at the turn signal area if you pull out the signal housing as shown below:

It works great!  When the parking lights are off, the side markers flash in unison with the other turn signal lamps.  When the parking lights are on, the side marker flashes opposite to the other turn signal lamps.