Turn signal flasher / LED conversion

[89SHOMike]

Question: Does anyone know the pinout of the '89 turn signal flasher? It is a 5 pin design and I can't seem to sort it out.

Background: I have recently changed out all bulbs on the car for LED (except main headlights). I am having trouble finding a 5 pin LED flasher module, so I am trying to adapt a 2, 3, or 4 pin one. Problem is that I cannot figure out what the pins are for on the stock module and thus can't adapt another properly. Does anyone know what these pin connections are or where I can find them?

Note: I have messed around with a multimeter, a jumper wire, and a 2 pin LED flasher. All I was able to do was blow the fuse a few times. I have also pulled the cover off the stock flasher, but can't follow the traces because there is more than one relay on the board and it get's confusing. I don't want to install a load resister because that would defeat the point of the LEDs low power consumption...

 

[jelloslug]

Would something like this work? http://www.genright.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=LED1300

 

[89SHOMike]

It might! The pins are not in the same configuration so I have no idea what order to wire them up to the car. There are a lot of configurations... If I had the factory wiring diagram I bet I could get this one to work....

 

[jelloslug]

It might! The pins are not in the same configuration so I have no idea what order to wire them up to the car. There are a lot of configurations... If I had the factory wiring diagram I bet I could get this one to work....

What you are looking for should be here:
http://jelloslug.com/sho stuff/wiring diagrams/89/

 

[89SHOMike]

Thanks a lot jelloslug! You did have what I needed and I used it to sort out my problem. Here is what I did:

To get both turn signals working I only needed to use 2 wires from the stock harness and a single 2 pin LED flasher module. My 2 pin LED flasher has the pins labeled as "B" and "L" and I assume they correspond to Battery and Load. I connected pin B on the new flasher to the purple/orange stripe wire and pin L on the new flasher to the light blue wire. This is all that was needed to make the turn signals work as they used to.

With this simple setup, you will NOT have working hazard lights and there are a few ways to get them back below.

First, you can connect a second 2 pin flasher like this: pin B to red/white stripe and pin L to white/red stripe. With this setup (2x 2 pin flashers) you will have working hazards and working turn signals in a stock setup (meaning the hazards work all the time and the turn signals only work when the ignition is on).

Because I am cheap and I want to return 1 of my LED flasher modules ($12 each), I wired it up this way: Pin B to red/white stripe and pin L to light blue AND white/red stripe. The side effect of this is that my turn signals work then the key is not in the car. I think this is an acceptable trade off for having my hazards work along with my turn signals while only using 1 flasher module. I suspect you can get a 3 pin or 4 pin flasher to work both the right way, but I don't have other flashers to play around with.

I am going to look into some way to re-create the clicking sound because this solid state flasher module doesn't make any noise (no physical relay to click). Once I have something like that working I will post it here.

 

[ACEsSon]

pictures or it didnt happen

 

[89SHOMike]

I have not thought about this upgrade in a long time.

I just went to the garage and took a picture looking up from the drivers floor boards and then pulled the flasher out of the zip tie to better see the wiring.

I have since purchased another SHO (94 MTX) and really am resisting converting it to all-LED too.....

Absolutely love the all-LED setup in the 89 and had completely forgotten about the fact that the blinkers can work with the ignition off... That said, it is obviously not been a problem so nothing to worry about.