No longer clicked off

I had previously converted all exterior lights on the 280z to LED.  When converting a classic car to LED lights, it is common to need to change the flasher(s) to an electronic unit due to the lower current draw (older flashers used a bi-metal that was heated from the flow of current to disrupt or flash the bulbs).  One thing that I also found common on this type of conversion is the fact that the flasher will sometimes click even then the blinkers were not engaged.  For me, this clicking was not a bother as it only occurred at higher RPMs (when the voltage was higher from a fast spinning alternator).  Recently, the clicking started at lower RPM's so I decided to do something about it.

First, I noticed that my voltage seemed higher than normal when the RPM's were above 2500 RPM.

When seeing the higher voltage my mind immediately thought of the voltage regulator.  When testing the voltage with a multimeter, I found that the voltage was reading as high as 15.6v when revving.  This is high by today's standards but for older cars this high of a voltage was not uncommon.  Even though I never took an official reading before, I decided to change the voltage regulator anyway since I already had a new one that I purchased when Black Dragon Auto was going out of business.  This unit was similar to the OE unit although it did seem to have a lesser build quality (OE on the right).

One thing I noticed right away is that one of the contacts was stuck closed on the Black Dragon unit; had I not taken the time to open the unit I would have never known this.

I also took the time to clean up all contacts at the alternator since they had years of corrosion built up.

After installing the Black Dragon unit into the car I noticed slightly lower voltage but it still bothered me that it would run in the 15v range.  I did some reading and found that this was common on the cheaper regulators and found that there was a particular regulator that seemed to be recommended from Intermotor.

Internally this regulator seemed to have an identical construction to the OE regulator I removed.  I installed the new regulator and also ran a ground wire from the chassis ground directly to the base of the regulator to ensure that the unit received a good ground.

In addition to the new regulator, I also read that the intermittent clicking from the electronic flasher relay can sometimes be caused by current leakage in the car wiring.  This minimal current would not be enough to generate the heat required to cause the disruption in the old bi-metal flasher.  While this clicking in the electronic units is common when searching for the problem, not many people have found a solution.  In my research I found one customer response from the manufacturer of my flasher on the Amazon Q&A section which  recommended a small resistor between the hot and the load terminals of the flasher.  No other details were given but this made sense for a solution since the units "detect" engagement of the flasher by sensing ground.  I tested this by creating a jumper harness with a resistor across the leads.  I used a 1k Ohm 1/4 watt resistor.

This harness eliminated the "ghost clicking" when the signals were not engaged and all lights worked perfectly except for the dash indicators which dimmed and brightened instead of flashing on and off.  I probably would have left it this way if I weren't already planning on making a more permanent solution.  I purchased a Dorman flasher socket pigtail with the intent of making this permanent solution.

I wanted to use a resistor with a higher resistance but still 1/4 watt of capacity.  The next resistance value I had on-hand was 4.1k ohms.  Since this was all trial and error, why not give this one a go.  I created a new harness using this resistor that would plug-in to the existing female spade connectors in the old harness.

While the electronic flasher I used would work even if the leads were swapped, I wanted to make sure the harness matched in the event that another flasher was used in the future.

I then removed the terminals from the old flasher socket and connected the new harness, using heat-shrink tubing over the connections.

So what was the result of all this work?  My voltage now stays very consistent at just over 14v no matter what the engine RPM and I have a flasher that no longer clicks when the turn signals are not engaged.  If I were to do it over again I would have used a resistor around 2k ohms as my flasher clicks one extra time after the turn signals are disengaged; this is still a very minor nuance that is still much better than previous behavior.