1982 CHP #0327

[ImEvil1]

Nice!

[mac88chp]

Good work! Thank god my car was never "civilianized" and all holes were left intact and unmolested.

[chp1982]

Looks great!

[NoDrama43]

be sure to spray a little etching primer on the holes, inside and out, to prevent any surface rusting etc.

[Steve]

With the great help of Jim (NoDrama43) I now have an NOS Unitrol M131 Wig-Wag Flasher unit for 0327. I had one from 0204 but it was original and had seen better days. And I did not have any instructions on how to connect it. I had even called Federal Signal Corp. (Federal acquired Unitrol's parent, Dunnbar-Nunn, some time ago) technical support for information, but they were unable to help.

Along with the NOS unit came installation instructions with a wiring diagram. I spent a couple of hours today figuring out how this unit wired into 0327's headlight circuit. I found where the wiring harness had been opened up near the master brake cylinder, and where it had been opened right below where the wig wag flasher had been installed on the left side of the engine bay just in front of the shock tower. It was obvious Motor Transport had cut the wires and spliced in the flasher in those two places, reconnecting the cut wires upon decommissioning.

It didn't take long to figure out which splice was for which high beam side; the RH was near the firewall. the one for the LH was near the wig wag flasher. One more wire, +12V from the WW terminal on the back of the CC1 completes the circuit.

I'll post all photos and more details when I have it installed, wired and working, but for now, and for future restorers, I am posting the installation instruction page in jpeg and pdf formats.

The wire I ordered came in so next step is to build some harnesses.

[Steve]

Today I completed installation of the Wig Wag Flasher. Attached to this post are an enlargement of the Unitrol connection diagram and a photo of the flasher installed in 0327.

On the '82 Mustang, the low beam headlights have two filaments. One filament is for low beam only, the other filament is powered up when the high beams are on. As shown in the stock wiring diagram, when the low beams are on, the headlight switch connects power to the low beam filaments but cuts off the power to them and switches power to the high-beam element in the low beams plus to the high-beam filaments when the high beam switch on the steering column is clicked on.

Once I located the two places CHP Motor Transport had spliced in to the wiring harness, the next task was to figure out which side went to the headlights and which side came from the headlight switch. Cut the splices, turn on the headlight switch, then check voltage at the wires. The side with +12V is coming from the switch in both cases.

I used #4 self-tapping sheet metal screws to attach the flasher to the sidewall, using the original holes. Self-tappers ensured a good ground connection for the case of the Flasher.

The +12V input wire (blue in the photo, as in the CHP wiring diagram) would be connected to the WW terminal on the back of the Federal CC1 controller. I don't have the CC1 installed yet so I just touched it to a voltage source to test. The wig wags worked perfectly!

Another good day for 0327.

[mac88chp]

Nice write up, good work! One more task down.

[Wolfe1013]

Great write up and detail, Steve. I for one really appreciate it. I had a photo of the instructions but never a scan or the added detail and commentary you just documented. Many thanks. Keep up the great work.

It's so cool to see someone who actually drove an 82 CHP Mustang share in the passion and restoration of now not one, but two of them.

Carry on. 👍🏻

[Steve]

Thanks, Mac and Wolfe, for the feedback. I had some extra time this evening so I put the details of what to cut and how to connect the Unitrol WW Flasher into the stock Mustang headlight wiring diagram. This should complete documentation of the Wig Wag restoration.

Next up: CC1 and CHP Fuse Block wiring harnesses. I'm just waiting for the fuse blocks I ordered to arrive then I'll custom mount them.

[Steve]

I almost forgot to post photos of the two locations where CHP Motor Transport cut the headlight wires to splice in the Wig Wag flasher, then reconnected the wires after decommissioning.

The first photo is of the harness by the ECM module, just below where the WW flasher mounted. You can clearly see the Light Green/Black stripe headlight wire indicated in the stock Mustang headlight wiring diagrams. MT reconnected the wires with the light Blue wire.

The second photo is of the splice location in the harness along the firewall, just behind the master brake cylinder. MT used the same blue wire to reconnect the Light Green/Black stripe wires. The blue wire goes up into the harness. A messy reconnect; used 2 wire colors (blue and red) in series.

Both of these splices had been tucked in to the harnesses after reconnect, but were easy to find. That blue wire MT used really stood out! I'm happy they made the restoration job easier.