• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A 1961 TR3 turn indicator diagnosis?

Share this page

Kleykamp

Kleykamp

Jedi Trainee
Offline
Left turn signal works as it should. Right signal flashes at green indicator on dash but neither front or rear indicators come on. I visually inspected both bulbs and they appear ok. Flasher unit seems warm to touch. There seems to be a heavy draw on power when the right signal is trying to work, i.e. ammeter bottoms out as light on dash flashes, and the generator light dims. Did I say I hate electrical issues. I suspect the flasher unit, even though it is relatively new, i had about 3 of them before getting one to work. But, in the process of trying to get a squeak out of the adjustible stearing column, I pulled the control head back about 3 inches accidentally. I'm thinking if the wiring there shorted out, there would not be power at the flasher unit though. Did I mention I hate electrical issues? Elementary school version on answers please. Thanks in advance as I know someone will know how to check this through.
 
Did you install a new wire harness? I did on mine and could not get the right turn signals to work. I did find I had power coming out of the control head for both right and left so I knew it was not the control head. Two of the wires that come out of the control head green-brown, and green-red were very close in color and I had them connected wrong. After I switched them all the lights worked fine.
 
"Left side works" says that it is unlikely to be anything common between the two sides, like the flasher unit. The ammeter behavior says that you have a short somewhere in the wiring between the switch contact in the control head, and the RH turn signals.

Electrical shorts can be tough to find. Since you suspect the control head, I would probably start by disconnecting the RH circuit where it comes out of the stator tube (near the LH horn). Find the harness with 4 wires that runs through the stator tube. Hopefully, you'll be able to see the color codes to look for the Green/White wire. If not, look for the thin wire that joins with two other wires in a 4-way connector, and both of those other wires go into the main harness. (The heavy wire is for the horns, and one of the GR wires goes to the LH turn lamp instead of into the harness.)

Disconnect the GW wire from the 4-way sleeve and test again. The left turn signals should still work (if not, you probably got the wrong wire). If the ammeter still pegs when you select right turn, then the problem is in the control head or the wires in the stator tube.

If you're lucky, one of the connectors inside the control head is just bent and touching something it shouldn't be touching.
 
I'll test the wires out of the stator tube and see. Everything was working fine yesterday and then I went to lube the adjustible column and the control head came out of the stearing wheel. My control head is just about literally made with JB weld and super glue so it is extremely suspect to start with. Could be the little brass screws I used to make the contacts inside the head. The horn quit working about 2 months ago. May be time to break over and buy one, but I'll check wires first. Thanks
 
Randall called it right...as usual. When I "rebuilt" the control head, the brass ring that makes the horn contact was broken. I put a wire across to complete the circuit which did work for a while and the horn worked. The horn quit working about 2 months ago. I guess when I pulled the control head up it moved the flasher contact which was touching and shorting against the horn contact... if any of that makes sense. What I need is the brass ring that goes to ground to fix the horn. Otherwise, I can put it back together without the horn contact and the flashers will work fine. Since the horn contact is not available...to my knowledge, I'll probably need to buy the whole control head to have everything working. Hate to buy a $200 control head for a 50 cent brass ring. I'm going to post separately about the horn contact. Maybe someone has some parts around on a otherwise bad control head.
 
Back
Top