There are quite a few posts on LED taillight bulbs and flasher problems. I would like to buy bulbs and flashers for my son's 72 Cutlass.

What is the best source for the bulbs and flashers?

There are 3 types of bulbs for replacing the 1157 bulb, one has all of the leds in a cluster where the bulb was, another has leds arranged around a cylinder and the third has the cylinder with an added led at the end. Does anyone have an opinion on which type works best in a Cutlass?

Which electronic flashers last the longest?

 

following

 

I'm about to try these 1157 LED bulbs from West Coast Classic Cougar for my '72 442 convertible project; they come in red, amber & white. The reviews on-line are all pretty good and they are a hell of alot cheaper than the DigiTails conversion. I'll post up my findings and some pics when I get a chance to test them. Here's a link if you want to check them out:

https://secure.cougarpartscatalog.com/plasma2.html

 

I used the same ones from Cougar parts. Fast shipping, work well. As Joe P noted a while back, you must get lights that have emitters on the sides in addition to the top because of how the cutlass tails are shaped - certainly the 71/72, I think the earlier ones apply as well. They are very noticeably brighter than 1157's.

I used the Keep It Clean FF552NLF flasher. It is a "very low load" flasher, so as long as you have the front bulbs as standard bulbs then it'll work just fine. If everything is LED then you need the flasher that has the separate ground wire coming out of it.

 

IDK if I got a bad set or if they changed them a bit but when I ordered those the pins were off just a bit where I could insert them but couldn't turn them. I tried until one fell apart in my hand.

On the upside they were easy to return.

 

Thanks for the good information. Maybe some more members that have tried LED bulbs will chip in with their experiences and a good flasher to use with all LED bulbs.

 

Following the discussion

 

I think whoever designed 1157 sockets had a sadistic streak. I replaced the sockets in my tails with new units, and did a lot of work to them to actually seal and still work, and it's still a battle with every bulb.

You put them in the right direction, right?

 

I did. I ended up putting the incandescent bulbs in & out a half dozen times until I put them next to each other and noticed the nibs were off just a touch.

I will say that pushing them into the socket & illuminating them it was a huge difference over what I had.

 

Does anyone have a recommendation on a good electronic flasher to use when all turn signal bulb are LEDs?

 

Any of the flashers that have the ground wire sticking out the side.

None of the two prong flashers work 100% correctly with all-LED.

 

On the LED's that didn't fit...did you compare the pins with an 1156 bulb? Maybe the new bulbs were configured 1156.