Amazon: Hazard light question

[123gt]

I’m considering having a hazard unit from 144 installed in my 67GT mainly for safety reasons. I have read that most owners simply replace the cigarette lighter and rewire into steering column loom. I have also seen factory installs for later cars while still retaining the lighter (probably for US market)
but location looks a bit tacky and requires chopping a hole in the dash.
My issue is if I replace the lighter (preferred option) I cannot hook up a GPS unit.
Are there any suggestions to address this issue? Also read somewhere if you hook up a GPS into lighter you need to install an inline fuse. Any advice would be really appreciated.

[Ron Kwas]

GT;

Emergency Flashers, or "Four-Ways" as they were sometimes knows in the US, are a nice safety upgrade for a pre '67 (or so). I like the 140 style switches for this because the knobs pretty much match the others on the earlier models, they are simple to connect (only three wires!) because switches are completely self-contained in that they have their own Flasher Element, and they can replace the Ciggi Lighter for a sharp OE appearance...I've installed them on both 122 and 1800 models, like so:


...of course, you will loose the OE Lighter as a power outlet at that point, but as I recently wrote in response to another poster who wanted to now use his Lighter to power modern electronics, Lighters were not originally fused, and I have seen a vintage OE Lighter fail with serious secondary wiring damage...so improvements are well advised anyway!

My advice to is to locate and install one of these sharp 140 E-Flasher switches, replacing the Lighter with it, and also install a brand new Lighter/Power outlet, discretely on an added bracket under the dashboard, taking power from either terminal 30 (Battery Power) or 54 (Ignition Power, as before), but installing an in-line fuse (rated for wiring which supplies this new Lighter/Power outlet) in any case, for safety.

Suggested Reading: http://www.sw-em.com/emergflash.htm

Cheers to "down unda" from Connecticut!

[northNH]

"but location looks a bit tacky..." Certainly compared to the '68-on cheapish plastic brake lite housing on the left, I think not...

"...and requires chopping a hole in the dash.", but only if you don't sequentially use some appropriately sized drill bits, or hole saw bit, or one that's close and a good round chainsaw file and patience.

ALL factory flasher switch installs retain the lighter in its original ideal location.
And I think Volvo's factory-installed location for the flasher, above the fan switch, was the result of a long series of productive engineering meetings, and I think they got it right.

It takes less time to install a fuse into the lighter circuit than it does to wash the car nicely...

Also worth noting that after '64, in their Accessory Catalogue, Volvo made available functionally identical (to post-'67) 4way flasher units with a chrome knurled knob and integral dark red indicator light that mounted on its own little panel from the bottom of the dash to the left of the wheel.
From the catalogue--"Flasher system WILL operate even when ignition is turned off! $8.95"
This is the one that would be "period-correct" for a pre-'68 car, if that mattered to anyone.

I've got one of those nice old fellas rattling around here somewhere, and several of the later Amazon and 140 ones, which can be slightly different, and are real easy to find 'cause they last forever and they made several hundred thousand.

And what Ron said...