Information here obtained from owning a car with sequential turn signals, from the 1967 Ford Thunderbird shop manual, from Cougars Unlimited's web site (makers of replacement electronic sequencers) and other online sources. This is pretty typical of even a well-maintained car from this era. The sequential lights in my 1967 Ford Thunderbird don't work right now, and I'm probably going to have to buy an electronic replacement unit (almost $200) and do a lot of electrical work before they do. If they don't, and keeping them working is much more complicated than for a regular system, they're very annoying indeed. ![]() In summary, sequential turn signals are a neat feature on a car, particularly one that had them from the manufacturer - if they work. It's possible that sequential emergency flashers are not legal in some jurisdictions either. ![]() Sequential brake lights (where the same circuit is used for when the brake lights come on) are definitely illlegal in several states, including I believe New Jersey and Florida. Sequential turn signals are legal in all states of the USA (and I believe Canada) I do not have information as to their legality elsewhere. The most commonly done are late-model Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Impalas, Pontiac Firebirds and Chevrolet Camaros, but the kits are adaptable. Electronic sequential flasher units are available from a number of companies, with instructions on how to retrofit them to a variety of cars. If you want to fit sequential turn signal lights to a car that didn't originally have them, you're in luck - provided you can find three lights per side that you can make sequential, at least! Quite a few cars are so equipped. I believe the 1969 Chrysler Imperial also used a transistorized unit. You can find the sequential unit in the trunk on Cougars and Thunderbirds, affixed behind the back seat, in all model years that had them. Later cars used a transistorized 'black box' with no moving parts this was much more reliable. Fortunately, someone has built an electronic replacement unit, if you don't care about total authenticity - if you do, you're on your own repairing an original one. The odds of finding a working one second-hand are slim, too. The part is long out of stock at Ford and it is practically impossible to find a NOS unit. This system was complicated and prone to failure, and therefore it's rare to find one of these cars with an original and still fuctioning unit these days. These cams would actuate switches to turn on the lights in sequence so long as the turn signal switch was set. The earlier, fitted to the 1965 through 1968 cars, was electro-mechanical, featuring an electric motor driving, through reduction gearing, a set of three slow-turning cams. No other production cars were so fitted, as far as I know this may have been due to worries about the system's complexity, and to automotive fashion. Sequential turn signals were factory fitted to Ford Thunderbirds built between 19, inclusive, to Mercury Cougars between 19, to Shelby Mustangs between 19, and to 1969 Chrysler Imperials. | | | | | |XXXXXX| | | | |XXXXXX|XXXXXX| | | |XXXXXX|XXXXXX|XXXXXX| | The ASCII art below might serve to illustrate this better than words: here, the boxes filled with Xes signify lights turned on. ![]() All are on for a brief moment, then all turn off and the cycle is repeated, giving a kind of strobing, directional effect. The innermost light is lit first, followed by the middle light being lit, then the outermost. The most common sequence employed requires three red lights per side that can be used as turn signals. This is obviously much easier to do on an American car because of the common usage of the same red tail lights as both brake lights and turn signals there is therefore much more room to play with than the European and Japanese usage of separate yellow turn signals and red brake lights. Sequential turn signals are a feature on some cars whereby the lights that form the rear turn signal don't follow the simple pattern of on then off, repeating, but instead perform a more complicated sequence.
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