American Autowire Hazard Switch Installation

Background

During the restoration of my car I fitted the American Autowire kit and I knew there was an “option” for the Hazard Flasher set up. Why this is not included in the kit is beyond me for the cost of it this shouldn’t be an option. From 1966 the Mustang cars had the hazard function as standard but was activated by a putting the indicator on and then the switch on itself.

I didn’t think that I would need the hazard switch at the time, but I knew I could add it at a later date if I wanted to. The thought has never crossed my mind until a while ago that I was out in my Mustang and spotted an old lady by her car that had broken down in a dangerous place. I parked up the Mustang and pushed her car to a safer place for her. She had no mobile either so she used mine to call the rescue service. She spent more time looking at my car rather than being worried about her own. It was at this point that I realised I needed Hazards as nobody could see the hazard of the cars.

I spoke to Adam at Mustang Maniac and he put in a special order for the American Autowire Hazard pig tail wire kit. The order came in a couple of weeks later and I also purchased the proper switch to go with the car. Originally the hazard switch is mounted in the glove box, but could be mounted in any number of places, so I am told. It turns out that mine was mounted under the dash next to the air con unit with the original wire loom still hanging where it had been cut. I had no idea what this switch was for as it was so badly rusted as you can see from the picture below. I presumed it was some random switch the previous owner had installed a long time ago.

Costs

Hazard Switch – Mustang Maniac £72.00 Click here for the link

American Autowire Hazard loom – Mustang Maniac £72.00 Click here for the link

What’s in the box

For the American Autowire hazard loom there some connectors, male block fitting (B) on the instruction diagram below and the harness itself.

For the Hazard switch the kit is made up of 4 components, the switch, the bracket, the metal plate and the nut and bolts. The metal plate is used on the top side of the glove box to give the bracket stability sandwiching the cardboard inside of the glove box.

Process

Official instructions from the American Autowire hazard kit, I have coloured the fitting block to block if you need them to make it a little easier.

The original Ford hazard wiring diagram

The full American Autowire (AA) loom has a connector under the dash steering column, this allows the original turn indicator and horn wire loom to be used with the AA loom.

This hazard kit now sits in between that connection and is a simple plug-in with extra wires that junction of to go to the hazard switch. There is a male and female bridge connections that can only fit together one way. As I had previously tapped the wire loom with OEM cloth tape, I need to strip the tape back to expose the wire colours and make sure all the wires married up where they should be and not cause problems with the bridge loom about to be inserted.

Disconnect the fitting under the dash before you start, or disconnect the battery.

Warning: do not reconnect this until the last thing, just before testing the switch. You will create a live or hot wire in doing so to the hazard loom. This in turn could cause problems and blow a fuse or even short out somewhere. If you disconnected the battery you can ignore this warning and fit the section first if you wanted too.

The extra four wires to the hazard switch itself are generous in length and easily reaches the glove box if that’s where your switch is located.

The quality of the switch is solid with a real firm positive click. The bracket and the plate are both quality sturdy metal.

The wire set up assumes that you have the original switch in place and you have the original pig tail harness there as well. With that in mind follow this process;

a) Cut the fitting of about 6” away from the switch. You should then crimp on the connectors and fit them into the supplied (male) connector block. Then connect the newly made hazard connection from the switch up to the already fitted connection on the AA hazard loom and your done. With the switch area. The rest of the connection process will follow along with the other method I will explain in sections j) and k) below towards the end.

b) Optional steps here where that I cable tied the four cables together at regular intervals and wrapped with wire loom tape. Leaving a small uncovered length near the switch end to allow you to see where the wires are fitted.

c) As the switch was new I needed to make it up. The switch can only fit into the bracket one way as there is flat section which corresponds with the switch. Put the switch through the bracket and fit the nut to hold it in place. Be careful when tightening up as you don’t want to scratch the bracket coating.

d) Now my problem is that I had no original wiring pigtail from my switch as I didn’t want another connection so I was going to directly spade connect to the switch. The instructions are clear for the back of the switch which tells you what wire goes which connector on the switch.

Strip the wires back and use the correct tool from my previous install of the wire loom to get that perfect crimp.

I placed a section of heat shrink tubing onto the wires and moved it out the way in order to complete the crimps.

correct length

first crimp completed

second crimp

second crimp completed

e) Slide the heat shrink the tubing into place over the crimp section only with the correct heat tool.

f) I then added a further larger heat shrink to cover the complete spade fitting. This will avoid the earthing out and strengthen the wire fittings. Make sure the wires are in the correct position on the back of the switch. One of the wires will now be a constant live feed and needs to be correct. With the spades correctly added to the switch slide over the larger tube onto the spade itself and again heat shrink into place.

g) thread the switch to the position you want it, either to the glove box or to the under dash where I was going to mount the switch.

h) Under my dash there was already two holes that were perfect fit as one was oval and allowed me to fit the second bolt where I wanted it without having to drill.

Fit the bolt through the switch bracket and the holes under dash, reach up the back and drop the plate over the bolt. Now get one of the nuts which has a self-hold washer onto the bolt and spin down as little.

i) Repeat for the other bolt and adjust the bracket to its final position. When happy tighten it all up.

j) Now you can get back to under the steering column, Connect the male and female ends of the hazard loom into the main wire loom.

All that remains is to tidy up and neaten up the loom again. Now re-pack the loom back under the dash.

k) Now test the switch and it should work fine. Turn the ignition on and make sure that the indicators are independent for each side still. Also check the hazards work with the ignition on too.