I posted this in the electrical topic but seems pretty dead there and I dont want to end up waiting months just to get help I am seeking when I need to do this asap.

I am looking for relays that will close the circuit for the secondary circuit and keep it closed even if the primary circuit has voltage pulsing on and off.

To be specific this is why, I am going to be getting my cornering lights working again on my 78 but the relays are gone and the wiring under the dash just isnt there. The wiring under the hood still is though for the cornering lights.

So I need a relay that when I mount two (going to mount four in total though) one for left and one for right I can wire in the primary activation circuit to the left and right turn signal hot wire from the turn signal itself (or from the turn signal sockets themself since all turnsignal wires are after the flasher) which will then close the secondary circuit and send a constant 12 volts to the cornering lights.

To stress this, I need to be fully sure that the relays I am getting will not open and close as the voltage goes on and off due to the turn signal flasher. I could save a lot of money by just wiring the cornering lights to the hot wire from the flashers on its side if I wanted them to flash. This relay needs to basically keep the circuit closed just like factory steadily long as the pulsing voltage is flowing but once it stops the secondary circuit needs to be opened then.

Needs to work like this, right turn signal is on the pulsing voltage to make the lights flash on the right side goes to the right relay closing the circuit making the light comes on. The cornering light stays on till after the turn is completed and the canceling cam turns the flashers on the right side off which causes the cornering light to go off.

I looked alot online and no one carries the oem replacement ones for mine, if I could find a new replacement for mine that works like this I will use it, but I still will need two extra relays since I am planning on upgrading the circuit making it alittle more complex but making it where the cornering lights only come on at night time and not during the day. Looking at the wiring diagram the headlight switch seems to have hot voltage through the parking light terminal in both the 1st and 2nd detent which means the second set of relays wired inline with the other two will be powered up when the head light switch is pulled out, this will close the circuit and allow the constant 12 volts to flow from the cornering relays to the cornering lights when the blinker is activated. Long as the head light switch is in the off position current cant flow to the cornering lights.

So as I said if anyone knows of what relay I need to look into please let me know, Ive been looking for a while now on ways to get my cornering lights working again and just figured out how to make them work only at night like I want but now I am having trouble tracking down the right relays. Every wheres I look they sell relays but they give no information about how they work if they even work the way I am needing them to. They just say they are for head lights or driving lights or fog lights. Surely these kind of relays exsist cause the way I am talking about wiring it up to the turn signal switch is how the factory did it and they stayed on steadily and didnt flash as the voltage pulsed.



Only other issue though that doesnt pertain to relays is about lights. I dont know how bright the back up bulb in the hazed old cornering light lens will get but I was thinking I can get a halogen bulb from this one place with a back up bulb terminal that would work. Only concern is heat melting or deforming the plastic lens which is a very big deal to me since nothing is being reproduced for the car as of now.



Was trying to jump start the socket to see how bright the back up bulb is in the corner light, well I just couldnt get it to light up. So I found a old brake/turn socket that fit so I stripped the wires and put a bulb in but couldnt get the bulb to light up. What has me baffled is connecting power and grounding directly to the battery the bulb wouldnt light up. Using my circuit tester the circuit tester lit up every time but the bulb remained off. I even touched jumper wires to the bottom of the back up bulb as well as the side and still couldnt get the bulb to light. God I hope I dont run into this when I get two new back up light sockets for the corner lights and go to wire it all up seeing as I cant even get brand new bulbs that work in the hardwire sockets on the car but yet connected directly to the battery I get power flowing through but no lighting up. Has me baffled like hell since if power is flowing through the bulb it should light up since the filliment glows as it gets hot from current flowing through it.

 

need help with automotive cornering light driver Have a read here.

 

Rusty, ( I still think that you have the absolute best username)

Automotive Time-Delay Relay

I found this by googling automotive time delay relays. I'm sure that there are others. I don't know anything about this company, but the concept seems right. My concern would be to make sure that they have solid products.

From what I can tell, you could take their standard product and adjust it to have a short on delay. Then you'd adjust the off delay so that it would stay on until another pulse occurred. When the trigger stopped pulsing, the cornering light would go out after the brief off delay.

It looks like they make products that can be triggered from a plus or ground. Also, they have versions for supplying plus or ground to the light as needed.

If it was me, I'd contact them to make sure that I got the right part.

I skimmed through the link, and the last circuit would probably work as well, but I didn't see any details on what transistors to use ( important since, the lamps draw a decent amount of current. ). I didn't check any of the other suggestions.

Good Luck,

hj

 

Thats a good link. Only thing that doesnt seem right is the factory didnt use the setups that they were talking about by using capacitors among other things. I did alittle more digging and found another site that had an article that helped alittle bit better.

That is what I think this latest article I just found is talking about as an alternative.

GMC Western States Tech Center #35- December 2001

Have to scroll down some but the article talks about 3 ways to install aftermarket cornering lights, mine have them factory but no place sells the orignals, well apparently by that link the capacitor is one way to make it work as described in the previous link but is said to be more complex than need be. The other options are either factory relays known as "cornering light relays" which are thermal relays that uses the heat of the pulsing current to keep a steady on current. The other way is use of a "digital" relay that uses a "computer" to keep the secondary light on long as there is pusling. I think that is the type you listed. I bookmarked their site till I can follow up on some of the routes I have from this link.

One is the article talks about the old factory cornering light relays found on Lincolns are either a Sylvania R-104 or Motorcraft D74B-15A217-AA relay. I did a search for both and Sylvania R-104 apparently isnt being made anymore. Like wise D74B-15A217-AA is also not being made. But the article did say that from a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealerships you can get new cornering light relays still (article from 2001 so might be discontinued by now) that is part number Motorcraft E35Y-15A217-A.

I did a search on ebay for Motorcraft E35Y-15A217-A and got two hits for NOS parts but apparently this part number is listed in the ebay ad under 83 84 85 86? Lincolns. Its two relays with 3 prongs that are mounted on a large metal bracket. Something simmilar to the oem one on mine. Problem is though $40 on ebay is kind of pricy on something that I am still not 100% sure is even used for cornering lights. I see a part number listed on that article but the ebay listing didnt say what those relays are for itself.

So since I am going to be too busy today doing more cleaning up in the garage I went ahead and sent an email to the ford parts department for my local ford dealership asking if they had cornering light relays that would work on a 78 Mercury. I even stated that if the wiring setup is different than stock I dont mind since the under dash harness was butchered by the previous owner. Hopefully I can get some form of cornering light relay from ford. I dont mind if its from a 80`s lincoln or a 90`s ford long as it works the same way. Hell I couldnt get the hot water valve for the heater and ended up with a plastic unit for a late 90`s Caddy, only one I could find that is normally closed and opens with vacuum. All others were normally open and closed with vacuum.

On the time delay relay you listed, I might go with it reguardless might not be for the cornering lights but I always did like the concept of under dash courtesy lights that stayed on for up to 40 seconds after the door was closed. Dont know if I should also splice into the dome light harness so it stays on as well but that shouldnt be hard to do.

 

Are you saying you want the cornering light to come on when the turn signal on that side starts to blink, and then come off when the turn signal stops blinking? If you want to use the same pulsing signal that powers the turn signal light to trigger the constant cornering light, the cornering light relay would have no way of knowing if the turn signal light shuts off simply because it's going off in the blinking cycle, or if it shuts off because you've completed the turn and it's off for good. In that case, the only way you could accomplish this is with a small timer circuit that counts a time delay after the falling edge of the turn light signal - if the light doesn't come back on after a predetermined time delay, then the timer would assume that the turn is complete and shut the cornering light off for good - otherwise it would keep it on since it would expect the turn signal to come back on as part of the cycle. However, this would keep the cornering lamp on for a brief time after the turn signal shuts off while the timer counts, and wouldn't look right. At first glance it's probably something that could be accomplished with a 555 timer IC.

Other than that, I don't see how to do this without modifying the turn signal switch. In most cases, the flasher is upstream of the turn signal switch, and when you move the lever left or right, the switch routes the flasher to either the left or right circuit. The only signal that comes out of the switch that's specific to the left or right side is pulsed, and the only way you could make use of that would be as I described above.

EDIT: I just looked through a couple of those links and ford2go had a creative idea about the time delay relay; however as he pointed out, you'd still have the same issue with the light staying on briefly after the turn signal stops. I saw someone mention a 555 timer IC in one of the other links as well, so I guess I'm not crazy after all.

 

I will need what is known as a cornering light relay, its a thermal relay, thats what the factory used orignally and it worked as I described using pulsing voltage from the turn signal to activate the cornering light relay to make the light come on. After the turn signal goes off the cornering light turns off.

My problem was and still is that I cant find a thermal relay known as a cornering light relay. Supposedly ford still sells them but I havent got a reply nor a call from the local ford dealership from my inquiry email sent to their parts department parts request section.

But maybe I am not understanding my manual correctly but the way I understand it is the cornering light comes on when the turn signal is switched on and they go off when the turnsignal is turned off. I am thinking its a quick heating/cooling thermal relay that heats up quick and cools off quick but maybe they dont turn on or off right away maybe there is a delay. I am not fully sure. If I could just find the right type relay I wont mind. I found two on ebay using the part number but it says its for a Lincoln 83 - 86 possibly but says its a relay not a cornering relay or what type of relay just says its a relay. Dont know how accurate the part number is and I would hate to blow $40 on something like this that might not be correct