Turn signals are a necessity for modern traffic. No matter how nostalgic hand signals may seem, they are of little use when a cheese-eating driver of a lowrider Honda cuts in front of you in an intersection. Except for one hand signal you won't find in the driver's education manual, few people even recognize hand signals nowadays.

Adding or rewiring turn signals to the rear is easy. The early Jeeps only had a single combination tail/brake light on the driver's side. A reflector was fitted to the passenger side. Most Jeeps have had a second light added to the passenger side over the ensuing years. It is quite rare to find one that still has the passenger side reflector. The original tail/brake light had a dual filament bulb, as do any modern replacements. One filament is the tail marker light and is controlled by the light switch. The brighter filament is the brake light and is controlled by a switch in the brake system. An aftermarket turn signal switch only affects the brighter filament for the brakes, making it function as a turn signal also. No major changes to the wiring are needed for the rear because of the dual filament bulbs.

The front turn signals are a different story. The socket will only accept a small, single filament bulb. Until now, you only had two choices for front turn signals. You could wire the front bulbs to operate as turn signals only, not as parking lights. Or you could convert the sockets to use larger dual filament bulbs. Neither option was appealing to me.

If money is no object, Electro-Tech makes a pretty nifty add-on turn signal switch that solves all of this and more. Perhaps you've noticed a theme in this website that money IS an object, so I had to do something myself.

A little electric magic let me have the stock single filament bulbs act as both front turn signals and parking lights. Only some minor rewiring was necessary. Please note that these relays have the coil isolated from the contacts, unlike a horn relay. A big thanks to the late Joe Van Slyke who took my hand drawn schematic and made it look presentable:

One major problem with many aftermarket turn signals is that they must be manually canceled. That is easy to forget as you drive down the road, creating a dangerous situation that can mislead other drivers. Flashers are available that click extra loudly, but good luck hearing even one of those in an open Jeep. Most aftermarket turn signals include a pilot light to remind you that your turn signals are activated. Unfortunately, that pilot light is way down by the driver's knees, well out of view while driving. A small pilot light in the driver's line of sight is a big safety enhancement:

A small red Light Emitting Diode (LED) make a good pilot light. The LED is mounted in a simple holder soldered together from brass tubing and sheet stock. A tab mounts on an existing fastener on the wiper motor. The end of the tubing was shaped to form a shade, much like on a traffic light. Without this shade, it was difficult to see the LED in bright light. The LED is a press fit in the back of the tubing. After the wires were soldered to the LED, the leads were carefully bent to the side:

You may find this hard to believe, but I got a bit carried away hiding the wiring. A small LED only draws about .010 amps. With such low current, very fine wire can be used. I had some 20 gauge wire, but even thinner 24 or 28 gauge would be plenty. With such small wire, it was hidden inside the vacuum line to the wiper motor. Such fine wire had no effect on the wiper motor performance. In the flex lines at each end of the rigid section, drill two small holes with a hand drill. Feed the wires through and seal them with super glue to prevent vacuum leaks. This view shows the wiring where the windshield pivots on the cowl. You could use the windshield frame as a ground so only a single wire would need to run inside the vacuum line. In that case, add a jumper to ground from the windshield frame so you are not relying on the pivot points:

You don't have to get so carried away hiding the wiring. Nor would you have to duplicate the LED mount I fabricated. As long as the LED is shaded from direct sunlight, anywhere in the driver's line of sight would work well. Another possibility is to hide the LED in the back of the wooden block on the driver's side of the hood. You are on your own deciding how to run the wiring to the inside of the hood, but it shouldn't be too difficult with such a fine gauge.

Most LEDs have a focused beam of light like a flashlight. It is important to have the relatively low powered beam aimed towards the driver's eyes. Some brands of LEDs have several beam angles available. Experiment to see what works best for you. The LED I have had no specifications, but the beam angle is probably about 30 degrees With my mount on the wiper motor, the aim changes when the inner windshield is opened. I can open the windshield a reasonable amount and still see the LED. If you like to drive with the inner windshield fully open or with the entire windshield folded down, the LED would not be visible. In that case, consider a different mounting location or some sort of adjustable mount.

An LED was chosen instead of a regular incandescent bulb, but either could be used. With an incandescent bulb, heavier wiring would be needed. The incandescent beam is not focused, either. The LED is much smaller, making it less conspicuous. An incandescent bulb gets hot, which might limit where you can install one. Incandescent bulbs are much brighter, so be careful you don't pick one so bright it is distracting.

Your turn signal flasher must have three terminals to run a pilot light. If you added a pilot light to a two terminal flasher, it would flash constantly regardless of whether the turn signals were on or off. A three terminal flasher can be substituted instead. The third terminal for the pilot light is normally labeled P. (L is battery power, X is the flasher output to the turn signals.)

A typical LED operates on a lower voltage than a vehicle's electrical system. You can purchase an LED with a built-in resistor, but they can be hard to find with the desired input range. With only the teeniest bit of math and some data from the LED packaging, you can determine what value resistor to add in series with the LED:

Note that the LED voltage specified is the minimum at which one will operate. For the vehicle voltage, I've selected what you might see with the engine at idle, headlights on, etc. Round down to the next available value resistor to ensure the LED voltage doesn't drop too low. I added my resistor at the spade terminal that connects to the flasher, but you could wire it anywhere that is convenient. After soldering the wiring to the resistor leads, use heat shrink tubing so no bare wire is exposed.

An LED is polarity sensitive. If it doesn't work, reverse the leads and no harm will have been done. An LED normally has the cathode (negative) side marked somehow, with details on the packaging.

I am very pleased with the LED pilot light I've added. Sorry that I have no exact details of what LED to use. The LED I picked came from my Pile-O-Parts and had a current rating of 10 milliamps at 1.7 volts. You may be able to find one at Radio Shack or elsewhere with a similar rating. Experiment with different value LED's and see what brightness you prefer.