LTD440 - confused about some things

Hi!

I'm working on my LTD440 and I can finally say I'm getting real close. I've had quite the bumps in the road, but we're getting there!

I have a few interesting things happening. I've installed a LED strip for my rear light, brake light and turn signals all in one ( www.caferacerwebshop.com/en/3-sections-b...trip-waterproof.html ). It works wonders, but now I have two issues:
- My turn signals don't work anymore. I know this is to be expected because LED has a lower resistance than normal lights. So I thought about buying this relay: www.nr1motor.nl/knipperlicht-relais.html . Should this do the job when replacing the stock relay?
- I accidentally pulled some blue wire (see attached photo), not sure to what it was connected. I can't find any unconnected wires. However now my dash is blinking with "STOP LAMP". I read online that this means the circuit is gone and it's warning you about your lights. When I put the blue wire directly on the positive of the battery, it stops blinking and stays live (engine not running). Can I safely assume this wire just taps into some other 12v cable somewhere?
- Last but not least, my horn also stopped working! If I put direct power to the horn it works, so luckily its gotta be one of the cables. I followed the brown wire but it seems to go to the turnsignal relay. Can anyone give me some hints on this matter please?

Greetings and thanks in advance,

Jasper

Answered your stop lamp issue in your original "happy to join" thread.

Here are some KZ440 wiring diagrams for the A1 and C1 European models.

The stop lamp indicator blinking originally meant the brake light filament is broken. To understand how it works a few things need to be cleared up.

First, an LED has *higher* resistance than a regular filament light bulb. Having higher resistance means it uses less current and uses less power. Putting a resistor in series with the LED would increase the resistance of the circuit. When people "add a resistor" to the circuit, they are not putting the resistor in series. They put a resistor in parallel with the LED which then lowers the overall circuit resistance. This then allows the circuit to use more current and power, which is usually opposite of what you wanted by using LED's in the first place. But it does have the effect of acting more like a regular filament light bulb.

The blue wire is the power wire going to the brake light bulb. The brown wire feeds constant 12v to the brake switches, and the brake switches apply this 12v to the blue wire when a brake is applied.

The three-wire brake-warning flasher unit uses the blue wire to detect the brake light filament whenever the brakes are NOT applied. If you apply a tiny voltage to the blue wire when the brakes are not applied, the blue wire is essentially grounded through the brake light filament. The brake light bulb filament is low-resistance so it seems like a direct connection to ground as long as the bulb only has a tiny voltage on it and is not lit up. That's what the flasher does...applies a tiny voltage to the blue wire. If it senses the blue wire is grounded, it means the low-resistance filament in the circuit is in tact. This means the brake light bulb is good.

But if that tiny voltage does not get shorted out, it means the brake light filament is broken. An LED, by having a large resistance, cannot short out that tiny voltage, and so the LED appears as a broken bulb filament and the flasher gives the warning.

Your options are to remove the flasher unit and you will not have any stop-lamp indicator on the dash when you apply the brakes. Or you can replace the flasher with a relay which gets rid of the flashing function, which you don't need since LED's last much longer than incandescent bulbs, but will still allow the dashboard's stop lamp indicator to light up when you apply the brakes. Or you can just ignore the flashing indicator.

I did the relay modification to my 440 when I upgraded to an LED tail and can highly recommend it. My rear-brake switch is much flakier than the tail/brake light will ever be, and being able to visually confirm when my brake light is lighting up is extremely useful (and something I miss in my car).

I'm not sure if the new Flasher will fix your turn signal problem, since it's hard to know if the problem is too-low of a current or faulty wiring. You might want to get an LED flasher anyway though as it will ensure your signals flash at the correct rate. If you can only find a 3-wire flasher (instead of the factory 2-wire) then you just need a ground, which you can borrow from the relay-mod for your brake lamp, or just attach to the chassis via the battery tray mounting bolts (similar to the battery negative cable).