Wacky signal flasher 6V

**krinkov58** · 03-02-2015, 11:06 AM

Having a strange issue with my '52 directionals...the directionals, be it right or left, will work correctly for a 2-3 seconds. The front/rear lights flash, the direction arrow in the dash will flash, with an audible clicking. Maybe 4 or 5 times, tops. Then the dash directional arrow will stop, the front/rear lights speed up and the clicking sound gets much quieter/faster but still barely audible. Sometimes it will come back to normal with one click and flash of the dash arrow, then back to fast. Same with both left and right sides. So far, I have replaced the Tung-Sol 535 flasher which was in there with another 535 (A cheapie Taiwan job) this morning and what happened was, both signals flash at the correct speed--but dash arrows not working at all. Swapped them both back and forth several times and the cheapie 535 flasher always works at correct speed but no loud clicking (barely perceivable) or dash directional arrows...the "original" Tung-Sol 535 flasher works great for a few seconds but always reverts back to the previous condition I described above.

What am I missing?

EDIT: The bulb contacts and sockets have been 100% cleaned up and are totally free from corrosion. The wiring inside the car is in good condition; outside of the car (including engine bay) not so much.

**krinkov58** · 03-05-2015, 10:06 AM

Went out to the garage with a voltmeter...plenty of voltage at the directional/park light sockets during operation. With the cheapie flasher, zero voltage to either dash indicator light (socket grounded to dash frame but pulled from gauge) under any circumstances. With the Tung-Sol flasher, I get a good 4.5V read for one or two flashes at the dash indicator sockets...it's probably more voltage but there's a slight delay with the voltmeter reading...and then zero volts from then on. If the signal lever is moved back to the middle neutral position, and then moved up or down, I'll get one or two flashes again with the Tung-Sol and then nothing from the dash indicators. Ad nauseam.
What could be making one flasher flash the lights at a normal speed but not send voltage to the dash indicators, and another flasher works fine for a flash or two--then no dash indicators and a rapid flashing of the outside signal lamps? I'm at a loss.

**firstofeight** · 03-05-2015, 04:07 PM

Almost assuredly a poor ground somewhere. Or a poor,corroded connection at the flasher plug in on the fuse board.

Ben

**krinkov58** · 03-05-2015, 05:16 PM

That is my go-to fix for most every electrical problem on these cars...6V is just completely intolerant of poor grounding. I'll try grounding the signal lamp directly to the negative battery terminal with a jumper wire tomorrow. Another though I had was to check the bulbs and make sure they're correct...might not be pulling enough amps to make the flasher work correctly. I didn't install the bulbs myself so ya never know...think the signal filament is supposed to be 21 CP.

**krinkov58** · 03-06-2015, 12:23 PM

Ran a jumper wire from the front signal/park light socket to the negative terminal of the battery...no improvement. The bulbs were GE 1154, which is 21CP for the flasher and 3CP for the park lights. Still missing something here. Socket in the fuse panel for the flasher is clean as a whistle as are all the bulb sockets and contacts.

**telriv** · 03-07-2015, 09:54 AM

My 1st. thought is a defective NEW cheapish flasher. Have run into this MANY times. To the point where I have swapped flashers 5-6 times before finding ONE out of ALL of them that would work. Quality today is NO WHERE near what it was "Back When".
Just another thought on the subject.

Tom T.

**TexasJohn55** · 03-07-2015, 11:22 AM

Could it be the turn signal switch? Or maybe a bad connection between the outside bulb hot circuit and the inside indicator lamps? Most logical would be a bad ground to the dash itself for indicator bulbs.

The older style flashers used a bi-metallic strip which carried the load of all the bulbs and snapped open as it heated up which broke the circuit. As the strip cooled it would reset and power the bulbs again. These are load dependent and will only work properly if the bulb load matches the flasher. They would not flash if load was not heavy enough or they would flash very slowly. On the other hand, an overload or short may cause it to flash very fast.

The other style flasher is not as load dependent. Later models seem to flash fast when there is a bulb out. I cant explain all the details of design, just by observation.

Maybe there is an intermittent short on hot circuits to the indicators instead of an open. Then again, how would you check the indicator turn switch to see if it is the problem?

**krinkov58** · 03-07-2015, 11:27 AM

Tom, I'm with you 100% on that. But honestly the best results are coming from the cheap Taiwan 535 flasher...it just doesn't flash the dash indicators or click (well, barely audible clicks) but runs the front and rear bulbs on both sides at a normal speed. The old-school Tung-Sol unit is more erratic. It will work great for a flash or two, dash indicators working and a healthy clicking but then it goes to fast with no dash indicators. Again I'm missing something here. These flashers are load dependent to work properly, I think.
Texasjohn55, I think I'm just going to have to trace every inch of wire here. The interior wires are in excellent condition but around the engine bay they're not so hot. They've been wrapped in electrical tape in spots so I'm going to have to get in there I suppose and see what I've got going on.

**krinkov58** · 03-13-2015, 01:57 PM

Had some time to get out to the garage (which is a little more comfortable now that it's not below zero) and ran an experiment. I had previously gone through all of the bulb fixtures, even the dash ones, and ground them with a jumper wire with no changes. So here's what I did today. I took the left signal/park lamp housing out of it's dagmar and tested it...so this would be me just holding it in my hand, being careful not to let it touch ANY metal anywhere. I did this for signal. park and combination signal/park functions. Then I ran a jumper wire from the negative battery terminal to one of the lamp housings mounting studs and tested again for signal, park and signal/park functions. Here are the results:
Holding the lamp housing in my hand and away from any metal with only the 2 wires coming out of it, when a left turn was signaled the signal filament flashed fast but dim, no click. When I attached the ground jumper wire, one click and then a fast, bright flash. For park, the park filament still lit well and got a hair brighter when the ground jumper wire was attached. For signal/park, the PARK filament flashed kinda dimly but nothing from the signal filament, but when the ground jumper wire was attached I got one click, the signal filament flashed fast and the park filament stopped flashing.
So even with the lamp housing removed from the car and kept from any ground, it's still grounding. And the signal and park wires seem to be coming into contact somewhere...I'm guessing before the junction terminals because both left and right directionals are doing the same thing. So is it safe to say I'm replacing the wires from the terminals to the fuse board?

**telriv** · 03-14-2015, 11:09 AM

With the housing held in your hand & not grounded it is "Back feeding" into the parking light circuit. If you go back into the car I'll almost bet the dash lights are "Flickering" with the rythem of the flasher.

Tom T.